ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY GAMES – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s handball national team bagged an historic gold medal last night as the kingdom’s delegation signed off in style from the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games.
The Bahrainis wrapped up a sensational multi-day campaign in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the handball squad capturing the coveted title following a stunning 33-31 victory over the hosts.
That headlined a four-medal haul on the concluding day of action in the Saudi capital, with their star grapplers Shamil Sharipov, Khidir Saipudinov, and Magomedrasul Asluev all stepping onto the podium of their respective weight classes in men’s freestyle wrestling.
Sharipov bagged silver in the 125kg category, Saipudinov also won silver competing in the 86kg division, and Asluev took bronze in the 74kg weight class.
Present at the closing ceremony was Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Bahrain’s winnings on the final day of this year’s Islamic Solidarity Games brought their medal tally to 34 – extending their best-ever haul in the history of the mega sporting event.
The tally includes 16 gold, 11 silver, and seven bronze – won in athletics, weightlifting, handball, volleyball, judo, wrestling, table tennis, fencing, and esports.
The gold medals placed Bahrain in sixth place overall on the final ranking of 57 national delegations that all came away with medals.
Bahrain’s senior men’s handball squad, coached by Swede Robert Hedin, struck gold in handball for the first time in the history of the Islamic Solidarity Games.
The nationals used a late 7-5 surge to break a 26-all deadlock and close the final out for the win. Mohammed Habib Naser fired in the go-ahead goal and then Mohammed Habib Ahmed and Jassim Khamis stretched their advantage to 29-26 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
The Saudis got back to within 29-30 heading into the final five minutes, but then three unanswered conversions delivered by Khamis, Naser, and Ahmed virtually put the game away.
The Bahrainis trailed for most of the first half until Hussain Al Sayyad and Hasan Mirza were on target in the last two minutes before the break to put the nationals in front 17-15. The two teams then exchanged leads after the re-start, until Naser powered Bahrain ahead for good.
Naser finished as their leading scorer with nine goals. Hassan Al Samaheeji chipped in with six and Al Sayyad had five, while Ahmed scored four goals and Khamis and Mirza contributed two apiece.
For Saudi, Mojtaba Al Salem finished with nine goals while Hassan Alturaiki added eight in defeat.
Following the contest, the finalists were awarded their respective medals – along with bronze-medallists Qatar – in the podium ceremonies, attended by Bahrain Olympic Committee secretary general Faris Al Kooheji and Bahrain Handball Federation president Ali Issa Eshaqi.
Meanwhile, in men’s freestyle wrestling last night, Sharipov settled for the 125kg silver medal after a technical superiority loss to Amir Zare from Iran in their final.
In his previous matches, Sharipov beat Abdelrahman Sheyatan from Egypt by technical superiority in the quarter-finals, and then edged past Giorgi Meshvildishvili from Azerbaijan 7-6 in the semis. That set up his clash with Zare, but he could not secure the win.
Sharing the 125kg bronze medals were Meshvildishvili and Hakan Buyukcingil from Türkiye.
Saipudinov finished as the 86kg division’s runner-up after a 1-5 loss in his final to Arsenii Dzhioev from Azerbaijan.
Earlier in the day, Saipudinov kicked off his medal bid by beating Bekzat Rakhimov from Kyrgyzstan 12-6 in the round of 16. He then claimed a technical superiority win against Ahmed Mahmoud from Egypt in the quarters, before doing just enough to defeat Osman Gocen from Türkiye 8-6 in the last four.
Claiming a bronze apiece in their division were Rakhimov and Iran’s Kamran Ghasempur.
Asluev won 74kg bronze after defeating Fazli Eryilmaz from Türkiye 4-3 in one of two third-place classification contests.
He began his campaign by beating Inayat Ullah from Pakistan 8-1 in the last 16, and then won 12-9 against Shams Qurais from Afghanistan in the elite eight. But in the semis, Asluev lost 5-7 to Aghanazar Novruzov, dropping him to the bronze medal round. He shared his place on the third step of the podium with Orozbek Toktomambetov from Kyrgyzstan.
Younes Emamichoghaei from Iran was the gold medal winner, beating Novruzov in the final.
Also yesterday, Bahrain’s reigning Olympic champion and former world champion Akhmed Tazhudinov narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the 97kg category, losing his match for third place against Magomedkhan Magomedov.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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