ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY GAMES – BAHRAIN’S Violah Jepchumba Motosio bagged a silver medal last night in the women’s 10,000 metres at the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games, currently being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Motosio secured her place on the podium after completing the gruelling 25-lap race at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium just 2.17 seconds behind winner Rebecca Chelengat from Uganda in an exciting finish.
Chelengat clinched her gold medal in a total race time of 32 minutes 11.42 seconds while Motosio followed in 32:13.59. Samiya Hassan Nour from Djibouti was the bronze-medallist, coming home not far behind in 32:17.72.
Bahrain had another athlete competing in the run – former Olympic champion Ruth Jebet, who was classified fifth amongst the eight participants in 33:10.63.
With her silver medal, Motosio raised the kingdom’s medal tally to 13 so far. These include five gold medals, four silver medals, and four bronze – won in athletics, weightlifting, judo, volleyball, esports, and table tennis.
Meanwhile, also in athletics yesterday at this year’s Islamic Solidarity Games, Bahrain’s Zouhair Aouad punched his ticket to the gold medal round of the men’s 1,500m.
Competing in the second and quicker of two heats, Aouad ranked fifth in his race with a time of 3:59.19. That was good enough for fifth-best overall amongst the combined field of 16 athletes from this phase. The final is scheduled to be held tomorrow, with 12 qualifiers set to compete for a place on the podium.
Winning Aouad’s heat yesterday with the fastest time of the round was Hafid Rizqy of Morocco in 3:51.52, while taking the first heat was his countryman Anass Essayi in 3:59.53.
In the women’s discus throw final last night, Bahrain’s Noora Jassim placed seventh. She had only two successful attempts from a possible six, with her best effort at 42.91 metres.
Nora Atim Monie from Cameroon won gold with a 57.04m best mark, while Obiageri Pamela Amaechi from Nigeria took silver at 56.99m and Ozlem Becerek from Türkiye was the bronze-medallist at 55.56m.
Amongst Bahrain’s top athletes set to compete today in Riyadh are reigning Olympic champion and former world champion Winfred Yavi, who will be racing in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase final at 8.25pm; ex-world champion Salwa Eid Naser, who will be running in the women’s 400m heats, which get underway at 11.25am; Mahmoud Abdelrahman, who will be competing in the men’s shot put final at 9.30pm; and Birhanu Balew and Abdikani Hamid, who will both be running the men’s 10,000m final at 9.55pm. All times are Bahrain. A number of Bahrain’s other athletes will also be competing today in other events.
The kingdom’s delegation also had positive results last night in the men’s 3x3 basketball tournament at this year’s Islamic Solidarity Games.
The Bahrainis won both their contests to virtually book their tickets to the semi-finals, which will be held tomorrow. They first ousted Egypt 21-13 last night and then were dominant in a 21-11 win against hosts Saudi Arabia, both in preliminary round Group A.
In their victory against their Egyptian counterparts, Bogdan Dragovic scored 10 points to spearhead the kingdom’s team, including three baskets from beyond the arc. Milos Supica added eight points for the nationals, while Sayed Mohammed Hameed had two points and Mohammed Buallay finished with one. In their next outing against the home side, Supica was their top performer with nine points, while Buallay scored five and Dragovic finished with four. Hameed contributed one point in the win.
The Bahrainis are back in action today against Algeria at 6.15pm in their concluding assignment of the first stage. Following the last four tomorrow, the medal games will be held.
Elsewhere yesterday in the Saudi capital, Bahrain’s Naser Alsalehi and Saleh Bukhlaif both bowed out of contention in the round of 32 of the men’s epee individual competition in fencing.
Alsalehi opened his campaign defeating Abdul Musawir from Pakistan 5-3 in his opening bout in pool one of the preliminary stage. Alsalehi then lost 2-5 to Vadim Sharlaimov from Kazakhstan in his second pool contest, before bowing 1-5 to Ruslan Hasanov from Azerbaijan in his third assignment. Alsalehi then suffered back-to-back 1-5 defeats against Abdulrahman Almane from Kuwait and Ilim Uulu from Kyrgyzstan, but then lost to Vahab Fatullayev from Azerbaijan 9-15 in the round of 32 to end his participation yesterday.
Meanwhile, Bukhlaif was competing in pool two, which he began with a 0-5 loss to Yerlik Sertay from Kazakhstan. He then fell to a narrow 4-5 defeat to Ahmed Alsiheeri from Libya, before going down in similar 4-5 fashion to Arval Sundara from Indonesia.
Bukhlaif then claimed a slim 3-2 win against Saad Almadhagi from Yemen, but then lost 1-5 to Roman Petrov from Kyrgyzstan before completing pool play with a 3-5 loss to Jawad Aldawood from Saudi. Bukhlaif then bowed to Mohammed Esmaeili from Iran 7-15 in the last 32.
In taekwondo, Bahrain’s Abdulaziz Aldoseri lost to Iran’s Ali Ahmadi 0-2 in the men’s over-82kg round of 16.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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