ALL SMILES: Tunisia’s Soumaya Fatnassi (C) celebrates on the podium with silver medallist Algeria’s Kenza Filali (L) and bronze medallist Asmahan Elayyan after the medal ceremony for the clean and jerk event of the women’s 53kg weightlifting competition at the 2011 Arab Games here yesterday. (AFP
By N.D. Prashant/Doha

A hat-trick of golds by Soumaya Fatnassi in weightlifting saw Tunisia pile on the pressure on second-placed hosts Qatar at the end of fifth day’s proceeding here at the 2011 Arab Games yesterday.
Tunisia currently on third place have 11 golds — one less than Qatar. The hosts have managed a total of 34 medals overall, while Tunisia have 22.
However, Egypt continued to pull away from the rest of the pack on the medals table by adding 13 more golds to their kitty. The team, from the land of Pharaoh, till now have managed to pocket 28 golds and are clearly getting out of the reach of their rivals.
Tunisia’s Fatnassi won golds in all three — women’s 53 kg snatch, women’s 53 kg clean & jerk and women’s 53 kg weightlifting competitions.
“I’m delighted and very excited. I want to dedicate this medal to my husband and children,” said an overjoyed Fatnassi, who also in the process, managed to lift a personal best of 101kg.
“I am used to lifting 104kg during training, but for some reason, I wasn’t able to lift that amount today. However, I’m very pleased to walk away with the top honours,” added Fatnassi.
Qatar’s Ali Ahmed Salem and Abdulaziz al-Obadi added two more golds to the hosts’ tally by winning the men’s individual recurve 30m and men’s individual Comp. 2x50m (1) archery events respectively. Salem had earlier won bronze in the men’s individual recurve 50m.
“I am really happy with this gold. I hope I get another individual gold tomorrow. That would be a great boost. I would be really happy to see the Qatari flag high up out there again,” said a jubilant Salem after the medals ceremony.
Salem agreed that he did feel the pressure of coming up triumphs in his own backyards.
“It’s natural that you will feel the pressure but I overcame it and snatched the gold. Now that I’m amongst the medals, so my confidence is sky high,” revealed Salem. Al-Obadi also later went on to win silver in the men’s individual comp. FITA.
Another sliver for Qatar was provided by Shaden Wohden in the women’s Vault with a total of 13.175 points, behind Aya Mahgoub of Egypt. Finishing third was Morocco’s Chaimaa Zemzami.
“I am very happy to get this medal. It’s a real pleasure for me to be here and serve my country. I did not expect to get the gold medal because I knew Aya would attempt a jump with much higher difficulty than mine,” said Wohden, who later in the day also clinched the bronze in the women’s uneven bars with a total of 10.600. The third sliver of the day for Qatar was provided by women shooters comprising Mahbubeh  Akhlaghi, Bahya Mansoor al-Hamad and Matara Faha al-Aseiri in the women’s 50m rifle prone team final with a grand total of 1,718.
Late in the evening, Qatar finally got their acts together on the third day of  bowling. The trioka of Yoused al-Jabir, Mansour al-Hajri and Mubarak Muraikhi played out of their skin to win gold in the men’s trios with a grand total of 3675.
The bronze was also pocketed by the Qatar team of Abdullah al-Jusauman, Salem al-Marzouqi and Fahad al-Emadi with 3,478 points behind Kuwait.