Dubai: Rashid Abdul Hamid and Rashid Mohammad made history late Wednesday night by becoming the first Emiratis to win gold medals in a men's event at the GCC Table Tennis Championships and then declared "we are born champions".

The pair combined well to beat tournament favourites Abdul Aziz Al Abbar and Khalid Al Haribi of Saudi Arabia 3-2 in a keenly contested affair at Al Nasr Club. Abdul Hamid was visibly elated having plundered gold and he praised his playing partner Mohammad, with whom he had won the GCC Juniors Doubles title in 2005.

"Rashid and I had won the last gold medal of the UAE in the Juniors and we did it again, this time in the men's competition so it shows we are the best in this age group. We needed to win this because this is our home tournament and moreover because we'll face much tougher sides like Egypt in next year's Arab championships," UAE No 1 Abdul Hamid said.

The Al Nasr Club players showed nerves of steel against their Saudi rivals, gold medallists in the team's championships a few days ago. They came back from being shunted out of the match a few times, like they did in the semifinals against Qatar, to earn a deserving 3-2 win.

"It's a great victory, first gold medal for the senior team so it means a lot to everybody and I am proud to be a part of it. We were a bit tired because it was a long day, but we were positive and our only goal was to win. We are born to be champions and we must get some winning momentum going before the Arab Championships come along," Abdul Hamid said.

Abdul Hamid is in line for a second gold medal after making the last four of the Men's Singles tournament, while Mohammad and Faisal Abbas, the other Men's players, were dumped unceremoniously following identical 3-0 losses to Saudis Al Haribi and Naif Al Jeeda respectively. A host of junior players also crashed out of their respective events, which makes Abdul Hamid the hosts' only medal hope in the competition.

And Abdul Hamid admitted he nearly let the country down in his Singles opener against Saudi Osama Al Nahidi, a match he struggled to win 3-2 before his 3-0 demolishing of Bahraini Anwar Makki in the quarterfinals.

"Now I hope to win my semifinal and put myself in a good position for the Singles gold medal."