MMA – Abdulla Qahtan wrapped up Bahrain’s participation yesterday in the sixth IMMAF Youth World Championships in Al Ain, the UAE.
Sixteen-year-old Abdulla was competing in the Youth A competition for participants aged 16 and 17. He was going for gold in the 65.8kg weight class, where he won one of his three matches in Group F – coming up narrowly short from advancing to his competition’s knockout stage.
Abdulla began his campaign yesterday with an anaconda submission defeat to Kabina Benedek of Hungary. He then claimed an armbar submission victory against Caiden Bouwer of South Africa.
Abdulla then lost his final match by unanimous decision against Muso Kholov of Tajikistan, who finished top of their group.
Abdulla was part of a 13-fighter Bahrain national team that competed in this year’s youth worlds, which are being held under the patronage of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Abu Dhabi Executive Council chairman Shaikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
It features a record participation of more than 1,000 boys and girls representing 60 countries, including Bahrain.
The young fighters have been in action in Youth A, Youth B for 14 and 15 years old, Youth C for 12 and 13, and Youth D for 10 and 11.
Bahrain’s other competitors in Youth A were Saood Salman, Aseel Almutawa, and Hamad Mohseni; in Youth B were Hamad Almehri, Sayed Alawi Abdulla, Shawqi Alsada, and Yousuf Mercer; in Youth C were Ali Baqlawa, Abdulla Hussain, Rashed Alsaleh; and in Youth D were Mohammad Abubaqr and Jassim Abubaqrin.
The young MMA fighters were coached in Al Ain by Renat Iusubov and Sharap Gitinov, while the national team administrator was Ebrahim Aun.
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