ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN bagged two medals in the 26th Asian Athletics Championships, which have come to a close in the city of Gumi, South Korea.
Star athletes Kemi Adekoya and Albert Rop won a silver and bronze medal, respectively, in the multi-day meeting, which featured more than 2,000 elite athletes representing 43 nations from across the continent.
Adekoya won her silver medal in the women’s 400 metres hurdles, while Rop secured his bronze in the men’s 10,000m.
Their haul put Bahrain in 16th place overall on the final medal table.
China finished in first place with 19 gold, nine silver, and four bronze for a 32-medal total.
India were second with eight gold, 10 silver, and six bronze medals for 24 in all, while Japan were third with five gold, 11 silver, and 12 bronze medals for a 28-medal haul.
Qatar were the top-ranked Arab nation with three gold medals, one silver, and two bronze for a six-medal tally.
Adekoya was beaten to the gold medal in the women’s 400m hurdles by just one-hundredth of a second. Dubbed amongst the favourites to finish in the top three, Adekoya showed her class and ran shoulder-to-shoulder with Mo Jiadie of China over the final metres.
Jiadie went on to capture gold in 55.31s, with Adekoya having to settle for silver in 55.32s. Vithya Ramraj of India took the bronze medal in 56.46s.
Earlier, in the heats, Adekoya secured her spot in the medal round after cruising to the win in the first of two heats. She finished with a winning time of 56.11s.
Rop then climbed onto the podium for Bahrain with his third-place finish in the men’s 10,000m final, where he clocked a season’s best time of 28 minutes 46.82 seconds. He was not far behind gold-medallist Gulveer Singh of India, who triumphed in 28:38.63, while Mebuki Suzuki of Japan took the silver medal in 28:43.84.
Rop was joined in the race by fellow-Bahraini Abdikani Mohamed Hamid, who was classified sixth overall in 29:30.93.
Meanwhile, also competing for Bahrain in the championships were Abdelrahman Mahmoud, Zenab Mahamat, and Violah Jepchumba.
Mahmoud narrowly missed out on a medal after placing fourth in the men’s shot put final. He had a best throw of 19.27 metres – classifying him right behind the top three that included gold-medallist Mohammadreza Tayebiseifkoti (20.32m) of Iran, silver-medallist Xing Jialiang (19.97m) of China, and Mohammed Daoud Tolu (19.92m) of Saudi Arabia.
On the distaff, Mahamat competed in the women’s 400m sprints, and came up agonisingly short from securing a place in the final. Running in the third of three first round heats, she placed third in 54.88 seconds, behind the top two of Nguyen Thi Ngoc (54.05s) of Vietnam and Liu Yinglan (54.51s) of China, both of whom advanced.
Jepchumba competed in the women’s 10,000m final but did not finish.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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