Bahrain's Winifred Yafi won gold in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Asian Games currently being held in Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday, breaking the tournament record.
Yafi (26 years old) finished the race in first place with a time of 9:04.36 minutes, 2.46 seconds ahead of Kazakhstani Tanui Nora Girotto, and 4.31 seconds ahead of Indian Parul Chowdhury.
This is Yafi's second gold medal in the current session, after winning the women's 10,000 meters race, raising Bahrain's tally to 8 gold medals, and advancing to seventh place in the general ranking table of the participating countries.
It is also the seventh gold medal for Bahrain in athletics competitions.
Yafi has an opportunity to boost her personal tally and her country's medal haul when she participates in the 5,000-meter race on Monday.
Riyadh is preparing to welcome an elite group of the most prominent gaming industry leaders around the world, in the inaugural edition of “Kingdom of Gaming,” the new event designed to connect companies, investors, talents, and entities that contribute to shaping the future of the sector.
The event will be held from 1 to 3 December, at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center (Mulham). It is expected to attract more than 20,000 visitors, 500 studios and developers, 300 exhibitors and sponsors, and 200 investors, to bring together decision-makers from the fields of game development, publishing, technology, investment, government agencies, and e-sports, with the aim of exploring new partnerships, investment opportunities, and trends that will lead the next phase of the sector’s growth.
At the heart of the inaugural edition, the “global leaders of the gaming sector” in “Kingdom of Gaming”, namely “Savi Games Group”, “Ubisoft” and “Roblox”, stand out, bringing with them a group of the most prominent institutions influential in the sector to the “Kingdom of Gaming” platform. More global gaming industry leaders will be announced in the lead-up to the launch of the first edition of the event in December.
In addition to the global leaders of the gaming sector, Kingdom of Gaming is supported by a group of founding partners, including Tuwaiq Academy, NEOM, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Another group of prominent players in the sector will also join the inaugural edition, including PUBG Mobile, Unreal Engine, Tencent Cloud, Impact 46, and Mirak Capital, to offer their expertise and experience in the fields of game development, technology, investment, and talent development.
Amr Saqr, Head of the Executive Management Office at Savi Games Group, said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is progressing rapidly to become a global center for gaming and e-sports, and a thriving industrial system that supports long-term growth. Bringing together sector leaders, investors, technology partners and the gaming community here in Riyadh will contribute to strengthening future cooperation and creating more sustainable opportunities.”
Over the course of 3 days, Kingdom of Gaming will host more than 200 speakers across 4 platforms, as part of a program that covers investment, publishing, game development, emerging technologies, talent, and e-sports. Confirmed speakers include Sir Ian Livingstone, co-founder and general partner of Hero Capital; Julien Merceron, CTO of Bandai Namco Studios and Delphi Interactive; Safi Ismail, President of Yalla Group and General Manager of the Regional Headquarters; Riley Russell, head of the US studio at Kojima Productions; Omar Farouk Gungor, studio director at Motion Blur Game Studio.
The program will address a group of the most prominent issues and topics that shape the future of the gaming industry, starting from investment in games and changes in the ownership landscape, to artificial intelligence and game development, building game ecosystems, talent development, and the growth of original intellectual property. The main platform, the platform for investors and startups, and the “Kingdom of Gaming Academy” will also offer specialized programs, in addition to workshops and practical training, selected networking opportunities, meetings with investors, and round tables for executive leadership, all designed to enhance ties and business opportunities between various parties in the sector.
The Kingdom of Gaming Academy will place skills development and the gaming industry at the heart of these dialogues, by connecting emerging talents with practical learning and development opportunities. The academy’s program includes the “Made in the Kingdom” initiative, with support from “Unreal Engine,” which gives creators the opportunity to develop their work and showcase it within the broader “Kingdom of Gaming” program.
PUBG Mobile will also present its own creator system, “World of Wonder,” within “Kingdom of Gaming.” It will display a group of the most prominent works created by Saudi students as part of its participation on the exhibition grounds, with more details to be announced before the launch of the event. This participation comes as an extension of PUBG Mobile’s work with creative students in the Kingdom, by employing the gaming industry and user-generated content, to provide opportunities for emerging talents to develop and present their ideas.
Annabelle Mander, Executive Vice President at Tahaluf, said: “The gaming industry has developed into one of the most innovative and commercially powerful sectors in the world, but the number of platforms that bring together all the components of this system under one umbrella is still limited. Kingdom of Gaming is designed to connect the people who make investment decisions, develop games, build technologies, and create new business opportunities. Our ambition is simple: to make Riyadh a destination where the global gaming sector comes together to do business and build opportunities.”
“Kingdom of Gaming” will work to bring together the sector and the gaming community under one roof, by combining a business and investment program with an audience-oriented festival experience, in a way that serves the growing community of players in the Kingdom. Over the course of 3 days, gaming enthusiasts will have the opportunity to explore the world of gaming in all its aspects, while international companies will be able to communicate directly with one of the largest and most active gaming audiences in the region.
The global gaming sector leaders, founding partners, participating entities, speakers, and integrated program reflect the breadth of the industry that “Kingdom of Gaming” is designed to serve, by linking global expertise, technologies, and investments, with the Kingdom’s growing base of developers, creators, talent, and players.
The Italian national team seeks to make amends when it visits its Turkish counterpart in Bursa tomorrow, Monday, in the second round of the first-level competitions in the European Nations League, after starting its campaign with a loss to Belgium with two unanswered goals in Rome.
The Italian team was subjected to jeers from its fans after losing to Belgium, in Roberto Mancini's first match during his second term as coach of the team, as it seemed that the effects of failure to qualify for the World Cup were still casting a shadow over the team.
“It's something that weighs on us a little bit, but we have to get over it,” Mancini said after the loss. We cannot stop at what happened, we have to think positively, because we cannot change the past.”
The Belgian national team took the lead in the 20th minute through Mika Godets, before Dodi Lukebakio added the second goal in the second half.
Despite the defeat, Mancini refused to consider his team’s performance entirely negative, and said: “It was a difficult start.” Everyone wanted to see a different performance for the Italian national team, and the loss is painful. The first half was less than expected, and Belgium was better than us, but that was not the case in the second half.”
He added: “When you lose, boos are expected, but not everything was negative. We have five more matches in the Nations League and we will try to win them, and we cannot be frustrated by losing one or two.”
Mancini will play the next match with an incomplete roster, after he decided to keep ten players at the national training center to undergo a separate training program, while Udinese player Nicolo Zaniolo left the camp after renewing his thigh injury.
Andoni Ahanior, Nicolo Barella, Diego Coppola, Samuel Inacio, Eddie Quadio, Daniel Maldini, Gianluca Mancini, Massimo Pessina, Samuel Ricci and Muhammad Ali Zouma were absent from the Italian national team’s trip to Bursa.
For its part, Türkiye lost to France 1-0 in the first round, but it emerged with positive impressions from the match, which was confirmed by coach Vincenzo Montella, the former Italian star.
Montella said: “I saw a great team spirit, and this is something we need to continue in the upcoming matches.” “It will not be easy to recover physically and mentally so quickly, so we need this spirit before anything else.”
