WRESTLING – The kingdom’s delegation for the 20th Asian Games continues to take shape as the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) announced last night the latest two athletes who will be going for gold in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan starting next month.
The BOC had already named Bahrain’s medal hopefuls in women’s taekwondo, men’s badminton, and esports, and yesterday highlighted that reigning Olympic champion, former world champion, and 2022 Asiad gold-medallist Akhmed Tazhudinov will be hitting the mat in men’s wrestling along with compatriot Alibeg Alibegov.
Tazhudinov and Alibegov are amongst the best in their sport in the world and have won multiple medals for the kingdom at the highest levels of wrestling.
Tazhudinov captured the Asian Games title in the men’s freestyle wrestling 97kg category in 2022 in Hangzhou, China and will be aiming for a repeat success.
The 20th Asian Games are scheduled for September 19 to October 4.
More than 11,000 athletes from the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) 45 member nations, both men and women, will be vying for the podium in 469 medal events across 43 sports in the OCA spectacle.
The wrestling events will be held at Nagoya’s Inae Sports Centre from September 30 to October 3.
The freestyle wrestling weight classes for both Bahrainis will be confirmed closer to the event.
Also set to fly the kingdom’s flag in Aichi and Nagoya are Fatema Sadeq Kalawadh and Ola Abdulaziz Aldoseri in women’s taekwondo, Adnan Ebrahim in men’s badminton, and Mohamed Hujairi, Fadhel Abdulla Taher, Hassan Khalil Ebrahim, Hussam Rashed Al Ansari, Mohammed Abdulnabi Darbas, and Yousef Abdulaziz Bahram in esports.
This year’s Asiad will mark the 14th time Bahrain are participating in the quadrennial multi-sport spectacle.
The kingdom’s athletes first competed in 1974 and have been a part of the Asian Games in each edition since.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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