WHAT should have been a Golden Day for Bahrain yesterday, sadly, turned into a day of silver lining as a clear and brazen unsporting act denied the Kingdom the marathon gold at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta.
Bahrain’s Elhassan Elabbassi had to settle for silver in the men’s marathon after Japan’s Hiroto Inoue pushed his way to victory.
Later, Eunice Chumba made it two silver for Bahrain finishing second in the women’s 10,000m.
At the end of the 42km race through Jakarta’s streets, ElAbbassi and Inoue entered the stadium neck and neck, before Inoue opened up a small lead.
In the final 100m, Elabbassi attempted to overtake on the inside but fell back after apparent contact.
“The number one (leader) pushed me,” said Elabbassi. “I would have won.”
Speaking to reporters after the race, Inoue said he did not know what had happened, but had been “surprised” by the contact.
Both Japan and Bahrain later reported the matter but referee Vadim Nigmatov rejected both teams’ complaints to leave Inoue with the gold medal. Each side has the right to appeal.
“We have lodged a complaint with the race officials,” said Bahrain’s chef de mission, Mohammed Bader. “Our athlete would have easily won the race. The Japanese athlete kept blocking him. Everyone saw that.”
Elabbassi’s coach Gregory Kilonzo said his athlete had been deliberately pushed by the Japanese athlete and “almost went down”.
Both athletes were credited with a time of two hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds, with pre-race favourite Inoue crossing the line marginally ahead.
Duo Bujie, a Chinese athlete from Tibet who took to marathon running after a childhood spent herding yaks, finished 26 seconds further back to take bronze.
In the women’s 10,000m final, Chumba and teammate Shitaye Eshete looked strong contenders for a medal. But at the bell, Shitaye had fallen back and Eunice was battling with Daria Maslova of Kyrgyzstan and Deshun Zhang of China for the gold.
But on the home stretch Maslova dug deep into her energy reserves and raced away to victory in 32 minutes 07.23 seconds.
Eunice finished in 32:11.12. Zhang claimed the bronze in 32:12.78 while Shitaye was fifth in 32:30.24.
Elsewhere yesterday Bahrain made inroads into many events with impressive performances.
Salwa Eid Naser and Iman Essa qualified for the women’s 400m final with Salwa setting a new Games Record in the process.
Ali Khamis and Abbas Abbas followed suit punching their tickets to the medal round of the men’s 400 metres.
The women’s final will be at 3pm and the men’s 10 minutes later.
Also doing well yesterday were Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong and Hajar Alkhaldi, advancing to the women’s 100m semi-finals while teammates Andrew Fisher and Saeed Alkhaldi made it through to the men’s 100m semi-finals.
Salwa posted a new Games Record as she led the qualifiers with a time of 50.86 seconds in her heat. Iman running in the second of three heats, also advanced with a time of 54.10s.
Abbas was the quicker qualifier yesterday, clocking 45.59s. Khamis timed 46.01s as he slowed down towards the finish in the third and final heat.
Fisher had the ninth-best time of 10.31s to make it through while Alkhaldi was the last to qualify with a time of 10.69s.
The semi-finals are scheduled for 2.45pm and the final is at 5.25pm.
In the women’s 100m, Hajar had the second-best time of 11.35s while finishing second in her heat while teammate Odiong won her heat in 11.48s.
The semi-finals are at 2.30pm and the final at 5.10pm.
Also going for gold today for Bahrain are Rose Chelimo in the women’s marathon at 2am; Noora Jasim in the women’s shot put final at 2.30pm; and Hassan Chani and Abraham Cheroben in the men’s 10,000m final at 3.20pm.
Bahrain’s Oluwakemi Adekoya and Aminat Jamal will also be competing today for a berth in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles at 6.30am.
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