Noora Sultan bags gold

Manama : Noora Sultan last night added further glory for Bahrain at the Fifth GCC Women’s Games being held in Doha as she put in a superb performance on the inaugural day of the championship at the Qatar Bowling Centre and a gold medal in the singles event.

Sultan, who led the bowling delegation to win the overall title in the previous edition of the games in Muscat two years ago, was again in top form in yesterday’s action to beat her opponents from Qatar, the UAE and Oman in six-games battles.

This result boosted Bahrain’s overall medal tally to 15 medals, including 6 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze. Today is the second day of bowling when all participants will compete in pairs for the doubles podium.

Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Deputy General Secretary and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) board member and Women’s Sport Committee chairwoman Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa congratulated Noora Sultan on her victory.

Bahrain also secured themselves a place podium in the handball championship after a 20-11 victory over Oman at Aspire Dome yesterday after being 8-5 at half-time.

Having defeated Oman twice in this double round robin tournament, Bahrain ensured a third-place finish in this four team championship and could grab the silver, should they beat the UAE today on the concluding day, while Qatar have already sealed the gold medal.

On the second day of the basketball championship, Bahrain suffered a narrow 56-58 extra-time defeat to title holders Qatar, their first loss in the tournament. Bahrain kick-started their title haunt beating previous edition runners-up the UAE 65-39.

Bahrain next play UAE on Wednesday.

On the second day of table tennis championship, Bahrain look to extend their winning ways today when they face Qatar at Aspire.

Bahrain opened with a great start in table tennis after beating the UAE 3-0 and have hopes on their trio of Kaltham Elyasi, Amal Al Nuaimi and Maryam Al Blooshi.