?Bahrain opened their account for medals at the 18th Asian Games, being held in Jakarta and Palembang.
El Hassan El Abbassi and Eunice Chumba took a silver medal each on the inaugural day of athletics events amidst fierce challenge from some of the continent’s best athletes.
In the men’s 42km marathon, El Abbassi finished second to Hiroto Inoue after a neck-and-neck competition. The Bahraini completed the race in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 22 seconds, losing out to the Japanese in the final metres.
Duo Bujie, a Chinese athlete from Tibet who took to marathon running after a childhood spent herding yaks, finished 26 seconds further back to take bronze.
Late on, Eunice completed Bahrain’s joy after coming second in the women’s 10,000m final in 32 minutes and 11.12 seconds. Kyrgyzstan’s Daria Maslova (32:07.23) clinched the gold while Deshun Zhang (32:12.78) of China settled for the bronze.
In the men’s 400m qualifying heats, Abbas Abubaker made it to the final after topping his heat in 45.59 seconds, while Ali Khamis raced to second place in his heat clocking 46.07 seconds.
Salwa Eid and Iman Isa topped their respective heats to reach the women’s 400m semi-inals. Salwa timed 50.86 seconds to break her personal record at the Asian Games, while Iman managed 54.10 seconds to finish first in her group.
Andrew Fisher and Saeed Al Amiri followed suit, reaching the men’s 100m semi-finals after crossing the lines in 10.31 and 10.69 seconds, respectively.
In the women’s 100m, Hajer Al Amiri and Edidiong Odiong qualified from their respective heats with respective timings of 11.35 and 11.48 seconds.
Action on the second day of athletics continues today with Noora Jassim to compete in the shot put final, Salwa Eid and Iman Isa (400m final), Ali Khamis Abubaker (400m final), Hasan Shani and Abraham Cheroben (10,000m final), Hajer Al Amiri and Edidiong Odiong (100m final), Saeed Al Amiri and Andrew Fisher (10m final), Aminat Jamal and Kimi Adikoya (400m hurdles heats).