?Bahrain yesterday (November 21) opened its medal account at the Fourth Asian Beach Games, being held in Thailand.
With only two day remaining for the Games, the Bahrainis stamped authority in the cross country event and clinched six medals – including four gold and two silver – on the inaugural day of athletics events at Naiyang.
Billsuma Gelassa opened Bahrain’s medal account in the men’s 8,000m cross country race, where he clocked 28 minutes and 41 seconds to clinch the competition’s gold medal.
Another Bahraini Aweke Yimer followed in second place in 29:01, edging Qatari Abubaker Kamal who rounded off the podium in 29:13.
Bahrain’s Dejenee Mootumaa missed podium after coming fourth in 29:14. Other Bahrainis in the fray were sixth-placer Julius Kalekem (30:00) and Zelalem RRgasa, who was unable to complete the race.
In overall, Bahrain won the men’s team gold, with Iran taking the silver and Qatar claimed the bronze. Athletes from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam were also in the fray.
There was even more joy for Bahrain in women’s 6,000m cross country race as Tejitu Chalchissa (23:39) and compatriot Ghladys Kibiwot (24:04) sealed a remarkable 1-2 finish for the Kingdom.
Jemila Robele, also of Bahrain, narrowly missed the bronze as she finished the race in 25:23, just before third-placer Kit Chin Yiu (24.48) of Hong Kong.
The results saw Bahrain win the overall gold medal and ahead of silver medalist Indonesia, while Thailand took the bronze medal. Vietnam was the other country battling for podium in this closely-contested race.
Meanwhile, three of Bahrain’s best bodybuilders qualified for the final show in the bodybuilding championship, set to take place today – the penultimate day of the Games – at Karon South Beach.
The prejudging of six bodybuilding weight categories were held yesterday. They were under-60kg, under-65kg, under-70kg, under-75kg, under-80kg and under-85kg.
Ali Abdrasool (fly weight), Yaseen Husain (welter weight) and Khaled Abdulaziz (open weight) all qualified for today’s medal final show, which gets underway at 1pm (Bahrain time). Mohamed Seroor was the only Bahraini bodybuilder failing to qualify and is out of the competition.
Bahrain also sent six more sports disciplines for the 10-day Games. They were beach football, beach volleyball, sailing, swimming and triathlon.
The beach handball team, who crashed out following a 0-2 defeat to Qatar in the semi-finals, hope to clinch the competition’s bronze medal today when they play Pakistan in the third-place match. This game is set to tip off at 11am (Bahrain time).
This will be the second time Bahrain and Pakistan meet in the competition earlier this week, when the latter captured a penalty shoot-out victory to top Group ‘B’ with an all-win record and qualified for the semi-finals alongside group runners-up Bahrain.