ASIAN BEACH GAMES – BAHRAIN’S Robert Bonsall came one position shy of climbing the podium yesterday in the men’s five-kilometre race in open water swimming at the sixth Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China.
Taking to the seaside venue at Sanya Bay Haiyue Square Venue Cluster as one of two competitors flying the kingdom’s flag, Bonsall put in a strong challenge for a medal and was amongst the leaders in the race’s opening two of three laps. But he was overtaken on the final lap and had to settle for fourth place overall, clocking a total race time of 54 minutes and 19.2 seconds.
Bonsall finished 33.2 seconds behind gold-medallist Zhang Ziyang from China, who triumphed in 53:46.0.
Bahrain’s other entrant, William Balzano, was classified 21st from the 28 competitors who started yesterday’s aquatics event. Balzano completed the distance in one hour two minutes and three seconds – crossing the line eight minutes and 17 seconds behind Zhang.
Also stepping onto the podium yesterday were the Vietnamese pair of Nguyen Huy Hoang and Mai Tran Tuan Anh. Hoang captured the silver medal in 53:53.2, while Anh came away with bronze in 53:56.3.
With those results, Bonsall and Balzano completed their participation for the kingdom’s delegation at this year’s Asian Beach Games.
In attendance at their race were Bahrain’s chef de mission in Sanya and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) executive director of operations Ahmed Abdulghaffar, along with Bahrain Aquatics officials and delegation members Farhan Saleh and Faraj Saleh.
Meanwhile, also yesterday, Bahrain fell to a narrow 0-2 (16-18, 16-18) loss to Iran in their penultimate Group A fixture of the men’s beach handball tournament in Sanya.
The result marked the first setback for the nationals after four fixtures in their pool, and they will need to win their concluding assignment of the preliminary round against Hong Kong today, in order to have a chance of advancing to the semi-finals.
The contest is scheduled for a 6am start, Bahrain time.
The Bahrainis’ loss yesterday followed their victories against hosts China, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. They dropped to third on their division standings with the outcome, behind the Iranians and Chinese.
Three players scored eight points apiece for Bahrain in their defeat, including Mahdi Ali, Bilal Basham, and Komail Mahfoodh. Ali Alhayki and Adam Alnasheet chipped in with four points each.
On hand for the contest was BOC board member and Bahrain Handball Federation president Ali Issa Ishaqi, along with BOC board member and BOC Arab and international relations director Fajer Jassim Mohamed, Abdulghaffar, and Bahrain’s deputy chef de mission and BOC Arab and international relations head Maryam Mardana.
In other Group A games yesterday, Iran beat Hong Kong 2-0 (13-8, 20-6), China edged past the Philippines 2-1 (20-21, 20-12, 10-6), and the Philippines battled past Sri Lanka 2-0 (17-16, 26-24).
Bahrain must be amongst their pool’s top two teams at the end of this ongoing single round-robin to make it through to the last four, which are scheduled for tomorrow.
The gold and bronze medal contests will then be held on Thursday later this week on the concluding day of this year’s Asian Beach Games.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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