Rop, Balew in top ten

Manama : Bahraini duo Albert Kibichii Rop finished seventh and Burhanu Yemataw Balew was ninth yesterday as they could only watch on as Briton Mohamed Farah (Mo Farah) clinched his double-double as he stormed to victory in the men’s 5,000 metres final at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The 24-year old Rop who clocked 13 minutes 8.79 seconds was up with the front runners until the 3,000 metres mark, but as the leading contenders stepped up the pace he was unable to keep up and had to settle for seventh of the 16th runners.

The 20-year old Bahrain runner Balew, was a back marker for much of the race but stepped up his pace in the final 1,000 metres and finished in a respectable ninth in a time of 13 minutes 9.26 seconds.

The silver to Paul Kipkemoi Chelimo (US, 13:03.90) and bronze to Hagos Gebrhiwet (ETH, 13:04.35), with fourth to sixth places goingto Mohammed Ahmed (CAN, 13:05.94), Bernard Lagat (US, 13:06.78) and Andrew Butchart (GBR, 13:08.61) respectively, while eighth was Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei (UGA, 13:09.17) and Abrar Osman Adem (ERI, 13:09.56) tenth to round out the top ten runners.

In the 65kg freestyle wrestling competition, Bahrain’s Adam Batirov the 2016 gold medalist at the Asian Wrestling Championships this year in Bangkok, Thailand  was beaten 3-1 in his Round of 16 bout against Uzbekistan’s Ikhtiyor Navruzov to bow out of the event.