?Bahrain took one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the Second GCC Games, being held in Dammam, in Saudi Arabia.
Farhan Faraj gave Bahrain the 100m freestyle gold medal, then captured two silver medals in the 50m and 200m. His younger brother Faraj Saleh added a bronze in the 200m backstroke.
The karate team started their campaign winning two silver and one bronze, while the handball team secured the competition’s silver medal, beating Oman 29-27 in a come-from-behind victory.
The results lifted Bahrain’s medal tally to 22 medals in total, including two gold, 14 silver and six bronze.
Farhan was in great form and completed the 100m freestyle on top in 52.70 seconds, finishing ahead of UAE’s Mohammed Al Muhairi (53.23) and Ahmed Al Hosani (54.40), who were second and third, respectively.
In the 50m freestyle, Farhan settled for the silver in 24.03, finishing behind UAE’s Ahmed Al Hosani (23.67). Farhan completed his trio in the 200m freestyle, in which he timed 1:57.40 to claim the silver.
The Bahrainis’ fourth medal in the swimming events came through Faraj timed 2:!8.47 to finish in third place, while UAE’s Yaqoub Al Saadi (2:12.79) and Saudi Arabia’s Abdulmajeed Al Marwani (21:14.91) took the gold and silver, respectively.
Late on, Bahrain’s national handball team won their silver-medal match against Oman by a two-goal margin. Oman went into half-time with a 15-13 advantage.
Host nation Saudi Arabia secured the gold medal thanks to a 31-24 victory over Qatar on the penultimate day of the competition at Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Sports City.
The karate team had a decent start to their bid as Omar Sobhi (under-60kg) and Sami Eid (under-67) took a silver medal each, while Maher Saleh (under- and 55) rounded off the first day by taking home a bronze.
A three-nation football tournament got underway yesterday with Bahrain holding hosts Saudi Arabia to a goalless draw at Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Stadium.
Bahrain, sending its under-21 team for this single round robin competition, will now take on Qatar in the concluding game on Friday.
The bowling competition started yesterday with the singles event, but Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Awadi (sixth place), Ali Al Qaseer (10th), Osama Abdulrahman (12th) and Ahmed Al Khaja (18th) were unable to win any of the top medals for the kingdom.
The opening tie in the table tennis championship saw Bahrain edge Qatar 3-2 at Al Ittifaq Club gym. Representing the table tennis team yesterday were Anwar Makki, Mohammed Abbas and Rashid Sanad.
Abbas gave Bahrain a 1-0 lead beating Qatari Ahmed Khalil 3-1, then Makki doubled Bahrain’s advantage with an identical 3-1 win over Abdulrahman Al Najjar.
Mohammed Abdulwahab gave Qatar some hope beating Bahraini Rashid Sanad, then Ahmed Khalil eased past Anwar Makki 3-0 to extend the tie into a decider, in which Bahrain’s Mohammed Abbas beat Abdulrahman Al Najjar 3-0.
Bahrain will now play the UAE today at 11am, while Saudi Arabia meet Qatar in the second day action.