BAHRAIN picked up another four medals yesterday – headlined by two gold medals in athletics – on the fifth day of competition at the fourth GCC Games in Doha, Qatar.
Striking gold for the kingdom’s delegation were the quartet of Sufian Abdulghani, Alaa Sami, Abdisamad Hisri, and former world indoor champion Kemi Adekoya in the 4x400 metres mixed relay, as well as Tigest Mekonen in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase.
Bahrain also bagged two bronze medals yesterday in shooting and snooker.
Maryam Alasam and Tammar Alwatt claimed bronze in the mixed teams’ 10m air rifle final, while Bahrain’s superstar cueist Habib Sabah climbed the podium in the men’s six-red singles competition.
The nationals’ four-medal haul brought their overall tally so far at this year’s GCC Games to 45 – including 18 gold, 17 silver, and 10 bronze medals. They remained in third place on the medal table behind Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and are ahead of Oman, the UAE, and Kuwait.
The GCC Games now head into its second week of action, which continues until Friday at the Qatari capital.
On the penultimate day of events on the track and in the field at Qatar Sports Club, Bahrain’s 4x400m mixed relay team put in a stellar performance en route to capturing their gold medals.
Abdulghani started off their run before passing the baton to Sami, who built a lead for the nationals in her leg. But after Hisri was reeled in by his Qatari rival, Adekoya showed her class by making up a sizable deficit before building her own comfortable lead en route to claiming the victory in a time of three minutes 21.44 seconds.
Qatar captured the silver medals in 3:23.37.
In the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, Mekonen had a dominant showing, striking gold with nearly a minute-and-a-half’s margin from her closest rival.
Mekonen was solo for much of the event and after clearing the final water jump and barrier, she finished unopposed in 10:30.41. Haya Altewajer of Kuwait followed as runner-up in 11:54.69, while Alya Almheiri of the UAE joined them on the podium in 12:08.73.
Tonight will be the final day of the athletics competitions at the GCC Games. The evening session will begin at 6.35pm, Bahrain time, with a number of the kingdom’s top athletes going for gold in their respective events.
Meanwhile, at Lusail Shooting Range yesterday, Alasam and Alwatt climbed the mixed teams’ 10m air rifle podium for third place after finishing their competition with a score of 367.3.
Qatar were the gold-medallists with a 495.4 score, narrowly beating out silver medal winners Oman, who finished at 494.7.
Bahrain’s four-medal harvest yesterday was completed by Sabah at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation Hall.
Sabah claimed his men’s six-red snooker bronze after losing his semi-final to Ali Al Obaidli of Qatar. The Bahraini ace shared the final step on the podium with Mohammad Shihab of the UAE, who was the other losing semi-finalist. He bowed to Kuwait’s Ammar Taqi 4-2.
Taqi went on to defeat Al Obaidli 4-3 for the gold medal.
Earlier yesterday, Sabah secured his place in the last four after overcoming Abdulrahman Al Shamsi of the UAE 4-2 in the quarters. Fellow-Bahraini Hesham Alsaqer was also competing at that stage, but he lost to Al Obaidli 0-4.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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