ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY GAMES – Bahrain bagged their first medal of the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Twenty-year-old judoka Ruslan Poltoratskii captured bronze in the men’s judo under-60kg category.
Judo is one of the 19 sports in which the kingdom’s delegation is vying for medals at the 23-sport event in the Saudi capital. Bahrain is being represented by a team of 102 athletes, including 73 men and 29 women.
Poltoratskii claimed his place on the podium after defeating Moussa Yahaya Aboubacar from Niger in the first of two bronze medal clashes in his weight division. He won after scoring a waza-ari.
Poltoratskii shared bronze with Youssry Samy Hussein from Egypt, who took the other contest against Roberto Simirnoy Loque from Guinea-Bissau.
The men’s under-60kg gold was claimed by Salih Yildiz Türkiye, who beat Sherzod Davlatov from Kazakhstan in the final.
In the competition’s earlier rounds yesterday, Poltoratskii began his medal bid with a win against Loque in the quarter-finals.
He scored a yuko to take the result. Poltoratskii then narrowly lost to Yildiz, also by yuko, in their semis head-to-head, which dropped him to the bronze medal contests.
Poltoratskii was one of two Bahraini judokas in action yesterday in the men’s competitions.
Twenty-three-year-old Mukhamed Aloev was also going for gold yesterday, but he lost his opening assignment against Ejder Toktay from Türkiye by ippon in the men’s under-73kg round of 16.
Meanwhile, last night in the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games, Bahrain’s senior men’s volleyball national team battled back from a set down to edge past hosts Saudi 3-1 (25-27, 25-18, 25-16, 25-21).
After splitting the first two sets, the Bahrainis took the match advantage when Hasan Al Warqaa hit the winning ball to end the third.
The nationals then rode their momentum into the ensuing frame, where they closed the match out for their first victory of the tournament after opening with a tough five-set loss to volleyball powerhouses Iran.
The kingdom’s spikers are back in action tomorrow when they take on Türkiye at 1pm before facing Chad on Tuesday at 4pm.
The Bahrainis complete their round-robin campaign on Wednesday against Qatar at 4pm. Elsewhere, in table tennis, Bahrain lost 0-8 to Iran in Group B of the women’s teams’ tournament.
The clash featured three matches. Bahrainis Dana Al Khayyat and Hessa Althani lost the first to Shima Safaei and Setayesh Iloukhani 0-3 (6-11, 1-11, 4-11).
Bahrain’s Kenda Mohamed then bowed to Neda Shahsavari 0-3 (1-11, 9-11, 2-11), before Al Khayyat lost to Iloukhani 02 (6-11, 3-11). The Bahraini women are back in action today against Lebanon.
In the men’s teams’ competition, Bahrain lost to Kazakhstan 1-8 in their Group B encounter.
The pair of Rashed Rashed and Mohamed Saleh kicked things off with a tough 1-2 (9-11, 13-15, 13-11) defeat against Aidos Kenzhigulov and Alan Kurmangaliyev.
Sayed Mahmood then lost 0-3 (9-11, 2-11, 5-11) to Kirill Gerassimenko, before Rashed bowed 0-3 (3-11, 4-11, 10-12) to Kurmangaliyev.
This year’s Islamic Solidarity Games features more than 5,000 athletes, both men and women, who are representing 57 nations from around the world.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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