Qatar’s Asrar Ahmed wins discus bronze

By Sports Reporter/Manama

After their impressive show on the day one at Khalifa Sports City’s track where they bagged nine medals, the Bahrainis continued to dominate the athletics event, winning seven medals in total, which included three gold, three silver and one bronze.

That brought the total number of medals won by the Bahraini athletes to 16, having grabbed nine medals on the day one.

Athletes, representing five GCC countries – Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Bahrain competed in a variety of events — 100m hurdles, 400m, 5,000m walk, 100mx4 relay, discus throw and long jump.

Noora Jassim gave Bahrain its first medal of the day by topping the discus throw competition. She was followed by another Bahraini Basma Mohammed, while Asrar Ahmed of Qatar came third.

Hajer Saad and Marwa Salah then bagged another medal in the 4x100m relay, where the finished first in 49.87 seconds, edging Oman who came second, with Kuwait rounding off the podium.

In the 400m hurdles, Bahrain’s Salha al-Lahdan raced to victory in just one minute and 11.04 seconds, beating UAE’s Mahra Jassim (11.13.98) and Kuwaiti Salsabil al-Sayyar (1:16.32) who were second and third, respectively.

Maryam Abdulla made it four for Bahrain, winning the 400m silver, with UAE’s Elham Bethlaham clinching the competition’s gold. Oman’s Samira Hilal was third.

Bahrain then took the long jump silver through Sabrine Yousif, who managed to jump 5.13m, while the gold medal went to Oman’s Buthayna Eid for her 5.25m jump. Noora Ebrahim of Bahrain jumped to 4.98m to finish in the top three.

In the 5,000m event, Muneera al-Belooshi of UAE won the gold medal ahead of Kuwaiti Noora al-Kandari and compatriot Alya Nasser.

Winners were honoured by Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalifa, Executive committee chairwoman Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz al-Khalifa and other officials.

Elsewhere, Bahrain’s volleyball team suffered a heart-breaking 1-3 (24-26, 25-19, 24-26, 24-26) defeat to Oman in a well-contested game at the Bahrain Volleyball Association gym in Riffa.

The Bahrainis, who started the competition with a 3-0 win over Qatar, put on a brave show against the Omanis but a string of faults in reception cost them dearly.

The first defeat for Bahrain saw them slip to third behind second-placers Oman and defending champions the UAE, who eased past Qatar 3-0 (25-10, 25-13, 25-10) in yesterday’s first game.