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Agencies
Doha
Qatar's team stole the show on the last day of the men's 3x3 Basketball Preliminary Round of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Friday.
The Qatari team overwhelmed Afghanistan 22-8 and Jordan 21-9 to take first place in Pool C with a perfect 3-0 record and advance to a quarter-final where they will play against Turkmenistan.
It will be a rematch of the Islamic Solidarity Games semi-final this year in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In that game Qatar cruised to a 21-14 win over Turkmenistan before losing the final 13-9 to the host team.
"Now it will probably be another story, because they play at home and have the support of their fans," Qatar's Tanguy Ngombo said of the Turkmen.
The Qatari cagers, the 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Cup winners, are big favourites to win gold.
The action at 3x3 Basketball Arena continues on Saturday with eight quarter-finals to decide the teams that will battle for medals.
In the men's tournament, the pairings are Mongolia vs Indonesia, Qatar vs Turkmenistan, Iraq vs Samoa and Thailand vs Kyrgyzstan.
In billiard sport, the Qatar men's snooker team defeated their Turkmenistan opponents 3-0 in the second match of the Round of 16 on Friday.
Qatar's Ahmed Saif set the ball rolling after defeating Aziz Durdyyew in the first game of the day before Nasser Ali Obaidli followed it up with the defeat of Ibragim Seyitnyyazow.
The Qatari duo later combined effectively in the doubles match to take the match beyond their opponents as they won convincingly to book their place in the quarter-finals on Saturday where they will next face Thailand who defeated Jordan en route the quarters.
In the swimming competition, Abdullah Abu-Ghazaleh finished 24th in the overall standings of the 50 meters freestyle while his teammate Firas Saidi came 27th.
In the 100m race, Qatar's duo of Nasser Nasser and Abdulrahman Hisham finished 22nd and 23rd respectively.
In the 200m race Abdulrahman Hisham ended in the 13th position while his compatriot Abdulaziz al Obaidli was in 15th place.
The equestrian competitions will continue on Saturday with the individual races.
Qatar is aspiring to win gold after winning the silver medal in the jumping event.
Qatar is represented in the individual competitions by Faleh al Ajami, Hamad bin Ali al Attiyah and Salman al Emadi.
Sheikh Ahmed al Fahad, Chairman of the Asian Olympic Council met with the Qatari delegation during an event which was held on the sidelines of the competition.
Qatar's delegation at the meeting included the Deputy Secretary-General of the Qatar Olympic Committee JassimaAl Buainain, and Director of Sports Affairs Khalil al Jaber.
Meanwhile, Qatar's Mohammed al Sayed defeated Torre Eugenio of the Philippines in their Game 12 match of the men's standard individual chess tournament his compatriout Zhu Chen lost to Geldiyeva Mahri of Turkmenistan in the fourth round of Game 6 of the women's event.
