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Our junior football team left Yemen last Friday for Qatar to start a training camp. The team will participate in the Asian tournament for juniors held from August 21st to 25th.

Yemen is in Al-Doha group which also includes Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran. The team started a local training camp on July 7th. However, the team is still not well prepared and has not participated in any preparatory matches. That is why, the coach, Mr. Ameen Al-Sonaini, decided his team should play with Qatari teams before the tournament starts.

The Yemeni players seem to have a very high morale. Many of them are optimistic about achieving good results. Al-Sonaini says to Yemen Times: "The task is hard but when you see how optimistic our players are. The team is in very good spirits. I hope that we will overcome all the difficulties and do well"
Yemen Times wishes the best for our national team. They have good ambition, but is that enough?!

The first specialized kung fu institute was opened in Sanaa last Wednesday. "The Golden Claw Institute" aims to train amateurs, though it is run by an expert, Mr. Nabil Saleh Al-Gaiefi.

At the opening ceremony, many kung fu players performed to for a large audience that included the chief of the Kung Fu Association, Mr. Hamood Obad and the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports.
Mr. Nabil Al-Gaiefi told the Yemen Times, "Many young boys are interested in kung fu. So, this institute is opened to bring together the large number of kung fu fans.
The Kung Fu Association will organize a training course to qualify junior referees at the end of this month. I will lecture in this course about the skills and teaching methods in this game. We are working on developing this game in order for amateurs to practice it in the correct way adopted by the International Kung Fu Association."

According to a program prepared by the Yemen Association of Sport for All, the Association's branch in Sanaa launched the first if the summer events on Sunday, August 9 with a football tournament for neighborhood teams and Arab and foreign communities living in Sanaa.
A total of 32 teams divided on four main centers are taking part in the tournament:
1- University center,
2- Industrial Institute center,
3- Ahli Club center, and
4- Orphan Home center.
Matches are to be held in each center to qualify the first and second teams for the quarter finals. A team will disqualify for the semi-finals at its first loss. The final match is scheduled on September 26 to coincide with the celebrations marking the26 September Revolution.

The Cities Gymnastics Championship for Youngsters was concluded on Sunday, August 8 at the High Institute for Physical Education.
The Hodeida team came first 86.6 points, followed by the Sanaa team with 86.5 points and the Taiz team with 58.4.
The championship's best player was Ghalib Al-Ariqi from Taiz, who achieved 58 points.
The concluding ceremony was attended by Mr. Mohammed Al-Hajary Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport, who stressed the need to support such games for Yemeni youngsters. "We hope to see young champions representing Yemen in international tournament," he said.

The primary tennis tournament started in Aden last Thursday. 20 players participate in this tournament, preparing themselves for the Cities Juniors Tournament. This primary tournament will last until September 5th, 1998. It is held at the Aden Tennis Club in Crater.
Morning and afternoon matches are held according to the new international rules and regulations. The first four players in this tournament will play with 10 other players in the real tournament. In the real tournament 3 matches will take place every day.

A training course for coaches of wrestling was opened last Saturday at the Olympic Center. This course is organized by the Yemeni Olympic Committee and the Yemeni Wrestling Association. It is sponsored and supported by the International Olympic Solidarity. It will last from August 8th to 19th, 1998.
An international Iraqi wrestling expert, Mr. Marwan Abood will give lectures in this course. Twenty-five beginner wrestlers from Sanaa, Taiz, Aden, Hodeida, Ibb, the Police Sport Association, the Military Sport Association, and The Yemeni Universities Sport Association, will participate in this course.

The minister of Youth and Sport, Dr. Abdulwahab Rawah, left Sanaa last Friday to Lisbon to participate in the international conference for youth and sport ministers held from August 8th to 12th.
Mr. Kofi Anan, the UN Secretary General, will head this international meeting. All in all, 170 countries will participate in this event. Before that, from August 2nd to 8th, the participant committees met to formulate the World Youth Document.

Official committees like the Family Planning Society and Family Care Society represent Yemen among the other international committees.
At the beginning of this year, the Arab youth and sport ministers agreed to present a unified document containing the problems of youth and sport in the whole Arab world. Dr. Hamoud Obad, the deputy minister, and Hussain Al-Awadhi, the Secretary General of the Yemeni Olympic Committee, will join Dr. Rawah in this conference.

The Karate Center in Taiz published the 4th issue of the Karate World newspaper last week. This karate center boasts among its members the top karate coaches and referees.
The Karate World newspaper is published monthly, and specializes in karate as well as in boxing and Taekwondo. In spite of the insufficient resources and facilities, yet the Karate World newspaper is still published regularly to deal with the problems and technical impediments facing this game in Yemen.
The editor-in-chief of this newspaper is the well known karate coach Mokhtar Hamid Saif. The Arab Karate Association chief, Mr. Nader Sharif along with some other international coaches praised this newspaper.
Yemen Times also wishes this newspaper more progress and continuity.

Volleyball Excellent Tournament With financial allocations released, the second round of the Excellent Volleyball Tournament will start on August 20, following a 3-month stop. See table below for mach dates and venues.