Following the success of the first round of the Women’s Bowling Championship in the capital of Saudi, Riyadh, the second round took place in Alkhobar on October 13th 2018. 40 women, aged between 13 and 50 years old participated in the sporting event that took place at the Al-Gosaibi Bowling Center.
Consisting of four rounds, all 40 competitors took place in the first. 24 participants went through to the second round and 12 qualified for the third. The final round consisted of three participants who competed for first palce, Ghada Nemer, Heidee Asiman and Meshael Abduljwad.
Ghada Nemer won the Women’s Bowling Championship and expressed how she shares her love of bowling with her two sons who have also made it onto the national bowling team, “I used to take my two sons to watch me bowl when they were young children to encourage them. I almost couldn’t believe the first time I found out about the Bowling Championship and that women can finally participate in such tournaments! I registered immediately, my love for bowling is indescribable.”
Member of the board of directors at the Saudi Bowling Federation, Dr. Razan Baker said, “We never knew how much people loved bowling until we started the first championship in Riyadh last week. We had 200 applications in Riyadh and around 100 in Alkhobar. We have females coming from different fields, some of whom play football, some fence and some are just into sports and want to try it; we had people join to enjoy the sport and others who plan to be professionals.” Baker also spoke about the organization’s future plans, stating, “We get a lot of requests from different teams who started asking to be sponsored by the federation. We are willing help establish the teams that show us better scores and better determination, and put them in for more competitions around the Kingdom in the coming year.”
Member of the Saudi women’s bowling team, that was set up in March of this year and is now sponsored by the Saudi Bowling Federation, Shmool Alharbi, is hopeful that more Saudi women will partake in sports, “I am happy to be part of this event to let other females here in Alkhobar, and in the Kingdom in general, know about this sport. I hope that the awareness of sports can be spread among all women through such events,” she said.
The head of the property department in Algosaibi, Dr. Sahar Algosaibi, shared her story of partnering up with the Saudi Bowling Federation in order to empower and inspire women, stating, “We work and aim to spread the word about sports between women, provide logistic support through well-prepared facilities and expand the field of sports for women in different sports, not only bowling.”
