Qatar’s Waleed al-Sharshani (centre) celebrates winning gold in Laser Standard Class on the podium at the Second GCC Beach Games yesterday. Right: Al-Sharshani finished ahead of Bahrain’s Abdullah and Ebrahim al-Doseri.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Qatar’s Waleed al-Sharshani won a sailing gold medal as he finished first in Laser Standard Class at the Second GCC Beach Games yesterday.
Al-Sharshani finished ahead of Bahrain’s Abdullah (Silver) and Ebrahim al-Doseri (Bronze) to win the gold after nine races as one was discarded.
Qatar’s Faris-al-Bakri won silver in the Laser Radial Class, having finished behind gold medal winner Dawood al-Sadiq of Bahrain. UAE’s Saeed al-Zaidi claimed bronze.
Oman sailors dominated the Optimist Class as they won gold and silver medals. Zakarixa al-Wahabi won gold, while Marwan al-Jabri claimed the silver medal. UAE’s Mohamed al-Hammadi won bronze.
Oman’s Khamis al-Wahaibi also won gold medal in the Laser 4.7 Class. The silver medal of the class went to Bahrain’s Saoud al-Naar, while Hamza al-Ali claimed bronze. Qatar’s Abdulrahman Ajinah finished fourth.
Qatar hoopsters dominated the opening day of 3x3 basketball as Qatar A comprised of Yaseen Musa, Mod Saleem Abdullah, Tanguy Alban and Erfan Ali Saeed entered the semi-finals along with Qatar B yesterday.
At Gharafa beach complex, Qatar A won three out of four matches to finish second in Pool B and set up a semi-final showdown with Qatar B, who defeated Oman A (18-12) and UAE B (21-12), but lost to Bahrain A (19-21) in Pool A.
Malek Abdullah, Khalid Abdullah Mohamed Amin and Mohamed Yousuf are the Qatar B team members.
Qatar A lost first match by a solitary point to UAE A (18-19) but came back strongly to win next three matches against Oman A (18-12), Kuwait B (21-12) and Bahrain B (21-7).
“I am little bit disappointed with our start in the tournament. Unfortunately we lost our first game to UAE by only on points, though we came back strongly to win all other matches and finished second in the pool and now facing Qatar B in the semi-finals,” Musa said.
“We are combining well as a team now and in a good position. As we are playing against our team in the semi-finals we are assured of a medal,” he said.
UAE A topped the Pool B by winning all their matches and will meet Kuwait ‘A’ in the other semi-final.
The semi-finals will be held at 6:30pm and final will be played at 8pm today.
Thanks to the efforts of the swimmers and sailors, Oman now lead the medals tally with nine medals, including four gold, four silver and a bronze.
Qatar is in second place with three golds, two silvers and one bronze.
The medals have not been decided in the beach soccer competition with two days of action yet to be completed.

BELOW:

Qatar Olympic Committee secretary general Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and QBF general secretary Mohamed Ali Hobesh watch Qatar’s basketball matches yesterday.in’s Abdullah and Ebrahim al-Doseri.