Yesterday a friend of mine told me a bunch of UFC fighters as well as a couple of ring girls were coming to Kuwait this weekend to visit the US troops and while ago I got confirmation from another friend who represents one of the fighters that they are in fact coming to Kuwait this weekend. The UFC fighters and ring girls will be arriving to Kuwait early morning this Thursday the 11th and they’ll be staying in Kuwait for 2 nights.
Sadly I am traveling that same morning so I won’t be able to stalk them but I might leave my UFC tshirt (pictured above) filled with with my friend so he could get me some more signatures. So far my shirt has signatures from Dan Henderson, Brian Stan, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping and a few other fighters.
Right now I know Mike Pierce and Charlie Brenneman (who just got cut from the UFC) are coming but no idea who else.
Around a two weeks back Nat wanted us to go wakeboarding so I did a bit of research and found a group called Q8 Balance. For a fixed hourly rate they provide you with the gear, wakeboards and most importantly a boat. I ended up booking an hour for Nat and I this past Thursday but I ended up going alone since she got caught up with some work.
Balance do all their wakeboarding in Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City down south since the water over there in the channels is very still. I hadn’t been there before just seen the Discovery Channel documentary on it but now that I’ve been there I’m definitely going back in the middle of the week to swim and chill out on the sand. It’s like virgin beaches all around with no trash and extremely clean water. I loved the place.
Balance sent me a map to the location of where they will be waiting for me. It took around 50 minutes from Salmiya to that location without any traffic. It’s pretty far. Once I got to the beach they picked me up and started explaining to me how everything will work since I hadn’t wakeboarded before (I’m not a sea person). They were very friendly and explained everything very clearly. I strapped on the gear and jumped in the water and the session began. Honestly for the first 15 minutes I didn’t think I’d ever be able to wakeboard since I kept falling down and drinking so much sea water. It was horrible but then gradually my body got used to it and I was finally able to stand and wakeboard. It’s really harder than it looks.
The guys were super friendly and helpful and I really had a lot of fun. The only downside really is the price. It’s KD35 an hour which isn’t so bad if you split it up between two or three people but since I did it alone it was a big chunk to pay. They’re also pretty popular so you’ve got to book ahead of time which means no spontaneous outings, you need to book a week or more in advance in most cases. I was actually considering not posting about them since I didn’t want to end up having trouble finding an empty time slot with them. If you’re interested in wakeboarding with Q8 Balance you can visit their website [Here] or their Facebook page [Here]
The GulfRun team are putting together their second 26 Hours Karting Endurance Race which will be held this December. Last years event was a huge hit and you could watch some of the highlights in the video above. If you’re interested to register here is some information:
Event: GulfRun Karting Endurance Race – 2012 (24 Hours) Date: 14th December 2012 People per team: Minimum 4 / Maximum 12 Registration deadline: 31st of October. Location: Kuwait International Fairgrounds Package Includes: Go Kart, pit garage, mechanics and fuel
Go Sport are opening a new location at Tilal Complex in Shuwaikh near City Center. The new store is located where “Beam” used to be right next to the Toyota dealership. Based on the location of this store my guess is it’s not bigger than their Avenues location. If it does turn out to be bigger than that would be pretty cool.
Update: I got a bit more information from my contact at Go Sport. The location is not going to be larger than the Avenues branch but it will have a different newer look. They’re hoping to have it open and ready by mid October.
There’s a youth rugby club in Kuwait under the name of Saracens Kuwait. They’ve been around for a few years and were previously known as the Nomads. There are different divisions of different ages ranging from under 8’s and under 19’s, for both boys and girls. They play competitively around the Middle East and this year, the under 19’s division has a chance to tour in England and South Africa. However, the under 19’s division is currently in need of more people to join in order to make an official team.
If you are interested in joining then you can come to the Hassan Abul Sports Center in Dasma on Friday from 8:30am to 10:30am. Participants do not need to know how to play rugby in order to join.
The first 3 weeks of practice are free and if the participants are interested in joining the club, then they will have to pay 50KD for the year and will receive everything they need.
Saracens has a website but it is a little outdated, you can check it out [Here]
GFC is an MMA and K1 event that will be taking place at the end of the month at Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref. The event will be organized by the kuwait kickboxing committee and tickets are currently on sale. For more information click [Here]
The Kuwait Little League Baseball and Softball is an organization that has been working with the children of Kuwait since the early 1980s. They function strictly with the efforts of volunteers and are a non-profit organization with all the income going towards the maintenance of the field and the equipment needed for the players.
Last year due to the kind support of sponsors they were able to get television quality lights on two of their baseball fields and scoreboards installed on three of them. They are of course as I mentioned a strictly volunteer organization that is 100% dedicated to providing children with a great, inexpensive, sport experience. This past year they took teams to international tournaments in Qatar, Dubai, Poland and the US. This was all achieved with the help of volunteer coaches, who not only gave up their evenings and weekends to work with the kids but also give up vacation time in the summers to go to competitions. The video above is their year in review video.
If you’re interested in signing up your children to the Kuwait Little League they’ve just opened registration for the 2012/2013 season. Below is the list of divisions with their ages:
Tee Ball – Boys and Girls – 5 to 7 years old
Minors – Boys and Girls – 8 to 10 years old
Majors – Boys and Girls – 11 to 12 years old
Juniors – Boys and Girls – 13 to 14 years old
Seniors – Boys and Girls – 15 to 18 years old
Softball – Girls only – 11 to 18 years old
Challenger* – Boys and Girls – 7 to 12 years old
*This is a division for children with special needs
To sign up visit the Kuwait Little League website and click on “Register Online Now” [Link]
Kuwait’s education ministry has launched a probe into the reasons for the extraordinarily heavy defeat of the national girls’ school football team despite spending more than $1.2 million on a training camp in the Czech Republic.
…
“Encouraged by the assurances given by the team officials, the ministry allocated KD350,000 ($1,242,060) for a training camp in the Czech Republic. However, it seems that the camp was turned into a vacation, with the players training for only three hours a day while the rest of the time was spent on recreational activities,” the spokesperson said, quoted by the daily on Monday. [Source]
The world record for the largest victory in an international football match is 31 – 0 with Australia winning over American Samoa in 2001. At one point Kuwait held the record by beating Bhutan 20 – 0. [Source]
Update: Just received the following comment:
Kindly remove the photo and issue an apology for your misleading article.
The women in this picture (and I am among them, number ten) are members of the National Women’s Football of Team of Kuwait. This picture was taken in the ONLY official game that the team played: a qualifying friendly against Qatar in May 2012.
Your article, on the other hand, discusses the losses that the Women’s Futsal Under 17 Team sustained. They are neither outdoor players, nor do they comprise of the main team.
More on the subject: the women who played the canonical Palestine match (and the UAE match to a lesser degree) are also not the official Women’s Football team.
Around two years ago I posted about Abdullah Al-Moussawi, an 11 year old Kuwaiti boy with incredible football skills. Someone uploaded a video of him on YouTube playing football and called the video “the new Maradona from Kuwait“. The video become popular and ended up catching the eye of a football scout in Holland who later tried to get Abduallah to move and train in Holland. Abduallah became a sensation in Holland and was given the nickname “the Pearl of Arabia”. But there was a bit of controversy and the move never happened. You could read my old post for the full story [Here]
Now that two years have passed I thought I would post a followup and let everyone know what Abdullah has been up to since then. Well first thing you’ll notice from the pictures is the fact he cut his hair and it’s now really short. He’s still living in Kuwait and hasn’t move to Holland just yet. He’s been training in Kuwait but with older kids so that its more challenging for him. Every six weeks he travels to Holland where he puts on the #10 jersey and plays for the top Dutch club SBV Excelsior. The biggest change for him will come next year since Abdullah and his family are currently finalizing things so they can move to Holland where he will be able to get the best training possible.
I don’t have any new videos to share but I did get some pictures of Abdullah playing in Holland. You can check them out below. He’s got a lot of potential to become a really great player.
Update: I just got an email with more information about the academy team Abduallah plays on:
SBV Excelsior is connected to Feyenoord Rotterdam. They share the same football academy. Abdullah is now training at the same academy where famous players like Robin van Persie (Manunited) and Kalou (Chelsea) started their carreer. A famous academy which has been elected as best academy in Holland 3 times in the past 4 years.
Also 8 of the players of the current first squad of Feyenoord (Ere divisie is Dutch Premier League) started their carreer at SBV Excelsior.
Yousef is a 17 year old Kuwaiti kid with a thing for backflips. He went around Kuwait and shot clips of himself backflipping in front of different landmarks and inside different places with the idea to show Kuwait in a different way.
I hope I’m not too late posting about this but I just found out from Kuwaitiful’s blog that not only is Kuwait competing at the Paralympics but that since 1980 they’ve won 49 medals including 10 gold. Why did I just hear about this!
At the current Paralympics that’s taking place in London Kuwait has a total of six athletes competing. For more details check out Kuwaitiful’s post [Here]
Some members of The 3 Club competed in Ironman Austria recently and they were featured in a short documentary of the event. Ironman is a brutal long-distance triathlon race that consists of a 3.86km swim, 180.25km bike ride followed by a 42.2km run. It’s insane! Check them out in the video above, skip to the 4:26 minute mark. [YouTube]
The first international airsoft event in the Middle East is going to take place in kuwait on the island of Failaka this November. It’s a huge three day military simulation event that should turn out to be epic!
Location: Failaka Island Date: November 8 to November 10, 2012 Price: KD35 (includes registration, accommodation and food) Accommodation: Ikarus Hotel / The Village on Failaka. Registration price includes shared accommodation for 2 nights. Private rooms available at an additional charge. Transportation: Speed Boat from Marina Crescent leaves Thursday November 8 in the afternoon and comes back Saturday November 10 at noon.
Registration needs to be paid by September 7, 2012.
This is a National Tactical Airsoft Association non-profit event.
To sign up contact MILSIM on +965 65680661
Here is a link to the event page on Facebook. [Link]
This is a public event that is open to everyone but you need to be a MILSIM member. You also need to bring your own equipment. To become a MILSIM member you need to be 15+ and pay just KD5. If you don’t have equipment then you can purchase a starter package from MILSIM for KD290 that includes the following:
1. M4 GBBR CQBR Airsoft Rifle
2. 3 Real Cap GBB Mags
3. Tactcial Goggles
4. Milspec Tactical Vest
5. Green Gas
6. 4000 0.25BBs
For more information on becoming a member click [Here]
To become a member call MILSIM on +965 65680661
If you don’t know what MILSIM is watch the video below.
This is not paintball. This is SPAAARTAAAA! No seriously it’s really different from paintball. The weapons are very realistic and look like real ones and unlike paintball you don’t fire off a million shots and hope they hit. MILSIM involves a lot more strategy and ammunition needs to be conserved similar to real life scenarios. You can check out my previous post on them [Here]
KUWAIT SHIDOKAN JITSU WARRIORS WAR I
Hughes, Pele, Newton, Menne, some of the top talent in lightweight world traveled half-way around the globe in hopes of winning $60,000 in an 8-man tournament on Kuwaiti soil. No easy victory as Menne would face Canada’s Carlos Newton in the first round and then Russian alternate Maro Magob before fighting the much heavier Kareem Barklaev from Russia in the finals. [Source]
The video on top of this post is of Antonio Tello versus Kuwait’s Khaled Mubarak [Video]
Here is a link to the full fight card of Warriors War Kuwait [Link]
Kuwaits first MMA and K1 event will be taking place next month at Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref. The event will be organized by the kuwait kickboxing committee and tickets are currently on sale.
There will also be a superfight between Ray Elbe and Ahmed Aly. Ray was an Ultimate Fighter contestant and has a Jiujitsu black belt. He will be representing Combat Athletics, a new MMA focused gym that will be opening in Kuwait soon. On the other hand Ahmed fought in Cage Warriors and won a bronze medal in the World Combat Championship. Here are the details for the event:
Gladiator Fighting Championship
Date: September 30,2012
Location: Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref
Ticket available at the following outlets:
Health Fitness & Weight Loss
Tel 55329494
Wawan Protein Co
Salmiya behind Wataniya Complex
Tel 99239555
Jacket Potato Restaurant
Hawalli, Al-Mothnna Street opposite College of Commercial Studies
Tel 22650509
For more information you can visit the Kuwait Kickboxing Committee’s website [Here]
Update: Turns out this is NOT the first MMA event, check this [Post]
