BAHRAIN athletes begin their campaign today in the Fourth Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Maryam Hassani, Fatema Nasralla and Latifa Al Hadi will spearhead Bahrain in the women’s skeet qualifying round, starting 8am (Bahrain time). The trio completed their training yesterday under Australian coach Valeriy Timokhin.
There are 11 shooters from Qatar, Turkey, Bahrain and host nation Azerbaijan in the fray.
The men’s event will be held tomorrow. Bahrain will be represented by Hasan Mohamed, Naser Khalaf and Tammar Al Watt.
Record
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s world record holder Ruth Jebet beat her Kenyan arch-rival Hyvin Kiyeng en route to set the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase meet record at the Shanghai Diamond League.
Jebet was outraced by Kiyeng in the Diamond League opener in Doha last week. But this time the Bahraini led comfortably at the 2,000m and hit the line in style in nine minutes and 4.78 seconds, smashing the meet record of 9:07.42 set by defending champion Kiyeng in Shanghai 12 months ago.
Kiyeng finished second in 9:06.72 while Celliphine Chespol, also from Kenya, took third place in 9:07.08.
Bahrain compete in two more disciplines – athletics and wrestling.
More than 3,000 athletes from 54 countries are participating in the Games.
Competitions are held at 16 grounds with 269 medals at stake.
Azerbaijan is represented by 325 athletes while Turkey has the biggest team of 345 athletes. Iran ranks third with 300 athletes.
Turkey is presently leading the medal table with 30 medals, followed by Azerbaijan (24), Indonesia (15) and Algeria (9).
Indonesia is the defending champions with 104 medals, including 36 gold, while Saudi Arabia were the overall winners of the first edition held in Riyadh with 60 medals, including 24 gold.