ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY GAMES – Bahrain bagged two medals last night, including a silver and a bronze, in the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games, currently being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Both medals were won in men’s judo, and they brought the kingdom’s tally so far to three.
Israpil Sagaipov was yesterday’s silver-medallist, while Askerbii Gerbekov came away with the bronze.
Sagaipov was competing in the under-90kg category. He narrowly missed out on gold after losing by yuko to Shakhzodkhuja Sharipov from Uzbekistan in their final.
Sagaipov opened his medal bid with a victory over Amir Abbas Choopan from Iran in the round of 16.
He then defeated Achraf Moutii from Morocco in the quarter-finals by ippon, and booked his berth in the gold medal contest with a victory by yuko against Aidar Arapov from Kazakhstan in the semis.
Sharing the under-90kg bronze medals were Arapov and Eljan Hajiyev from Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, Gerbekov was the first to medal for Bahrain yesterday in the under-81kg category.
The Paris 2024 Olympian had a rough start to his campaign after losing to Madi Amangeldi from Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals.
Amangeldi took the win after scoring a waza-ari. That dropped Gerbekov to one of the two bronze medal contests, where he took the win against Abdelrahman Mohamed Abdelghany from Egypt.
Gerbekov was joined on the third step of the podium by Gadzhimurad Omarov from the UAE, while taking the under-81kg gold was Vedat Albayrak from Türkiye, who defeated Amangeldi in the title-decider.
Yesterday’s haul added to the first medal captured by Bahrain in the Islamic Solidarity Games – a bronze won on Saturday by judoka Ruslan Poltoratskii in the under-60kg weight class.
Also yesterday, Said Sadrudinov came one victory short of stepping onto the podium in the under-100kg weight class.
Sadrudinov began his medal bid by winning his first bout in the quarter-finals against Koussay Ben Ghars from Tunisia by ippon.
But he then lost to Zelym Kotsoiev from Azerbaijan in their ensuing semis contest, putting him in the bronze medal phase, where he took on Dzhakhongir Madzhidov from Tajikistan.
Sadrudinov lost to Madzhidov by ippon. Taking gold was Omar Ashraf Elramly from Egypt.
Elsewhere yesterday in the Islamic Solidarity Games, Bahrain secured a hard-earned 8-6 triumph over Tajikistan in their men’s teams’ table tennis Group B contest.
Sayed Mahfoodh and Mohamed Saleh kicked things off with a 2-1 (11-8, 11-6, 7-11) win against Sultonov Ibrogimovich and Hasanov Jamshed before Rashed Rashed lost to Ismailov Sadi 1-2 (6-11, 11-9, 12-14). Saleh was then a 2-1 (11-4, 11-13, 11-9) victor against Jamshed, but then Mahfoodh lost 1-2 (11-6, 5-11, 7-11) to Sadi.
Rashed then wrapped up Bahrain’s triumph with a 2-0 (11-1, 11-5) decision over Ibrogimovich in their concluding match-up.
In the girls’ teams’ table tennis tournament, Bahrain lost to Lebanon 4-8 in their Group B affair.
Dana Al Khayyat and Hessa Althani lost 1-2 (5-11, 12-10, 10-12) to Mariana Sahakian and Bissan Chiri.
Kenda Mohamed then claimed a walkover victory, but then Al Khayyat went down fighting to Chiri 0-3 (10-12, 8-11, 5-11).
Mohamed then fell to Sahakian 0-3 (6-11, 4-11, 2-11) in the closing contest.
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.
Bahrain is competing in 19 of the event’s 23 sports.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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