BAHRAIN’S Adam Batirov came up short in his medal quest yesterday at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta.
Competing in the freestyle 74kg class wrestling, Batirov made it all the way to the quarter-finals but then lost to Japan’s Yuhi Fujinami.
At that point, Batirov was only a couple of victories away from possibly competing for a bronze medal, or better.
The 33-year-old lost to Fujinami 2-8. He conceded four points in each of the match’s two periods while scoring two points in the second.
Earlier in the day, Batirov claimed a fine victory over India’s two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar 5-3 in the qualification round.
Batirov trailed 1-2 after the first period but he did well to come back and defeat his highly regarded opponent.
Batirov moved on to face Abdul Ghafar Qaderi of Afghanistan in the next stage, and was again victorious 15-5.
Batirov scored seven points in the first period and eight in the second, building a 10-point lead and sealing the win through technical superiority.
Stage
That set the stage for his meeting with Fujinami, who eventually moved on to the semi-finals, where he lost.
Today at the Asian Games, Bahraini athletes will be in action in three sport - football, handball and shooting.
Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic team will be fighting for their life when they take on Malaysia at 3pm at Wibawa Mukti Stadium.
This will be Bahrain’s third fixture in Group ‘E’ of the preliminary round.
Bahrain lost their first game to South Korea and drew their second against Krygyzstan. Bahrain need a big victory to have any chance of qualifying for the next stage.
Malaysia currently top the group with six points, followed by the Koreans with three. Kyrgyzstan and Bahrain have a point each.
Only the top two teams from each of the six preliminary round groups plus the four best third-placed teams qualify for the next stage.
Meanwhile, Bahrain handball team will begin their campaign in the main round against Iran in Group Two at 10am.
Defending champions South Korea and Hong Kong clash in today’s other fixture at 2pm.
Bahrain have so far won all three matches heading into today’s game.
Bahrain will also be competing today in shooting.
Mahmood Haji and Husain Ali will be competing in the 10-metre air rifle qualification while Hanan Rahma and Safa Aldoseri will be competing in the same event for women.