‘Best Ever’ Asian Indoor Games end in style
Manama : Bahrain’s delegation to the Fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games attended the closing ceremony of the first-ever event staged in a Central Asian nation on Wednesday evening in Ashgabat, the Turkmenistan capital.
Bahrain, sent nine athletes to Ashgabat and competed in jiu jitsu, taekwondo and freestyle wrestling, winning two gold medals and a bronze during the 12-day games.
Ali Monfaradi and teammate Ahmed Shabeeb opened Bahrain’s account at the games, winning the jiu jitsu men’s under-77kg gold and bronze medals, respectively.
Adam Batirov then added a second gold for Bahrain by taking the men’s wrestling freestyle under-70kg gold medal in sensational style in the final on a points decision after defeating home favourite Batyr Orazgylyjow of the hosts Turkmenistan.
Bahrain also competed in taekwondo through young athletes Wala Al Dossary, Juana Mousa and Jumana Mousa.
The Bahrain team finished 23rd of the 36 nations on the medal table.
Hosts Turkmenistan finished well clear at the top of the final medal standings with 89 gold medals, 70 silver and 86 bronze across the 21 sports for a total of 245 medals. China came in second (42-32-23) for a total of 97 medals, while Iran was third with (36-23-59) for 118 medals.
Rounding out the top ten were - Kazakhstan (28 golds), Uzbekistan (24), Thailand (21), Korea (15), Kyrgyzstan (13), Vietnam (13) and Hong Kong, China (10).
Meanwhile, Ashgabat Olympic Stadium hosted a spectacular closing ceremony, in the presence of Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Olympic Council of Asia president Shaikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait and other high-ranking sports officials from all over Asia.
Shaikh Ahmed thanked Turkmenistan for inviting him to Ashgabat to witness the closing ceremony of this event, which he described as the ‘best ever Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
President Berdimuhamedov then declared the games closed, and the flame in the cauldron behind the giant statue of a horse’s head overlooking the stadium slowly faded away.
Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Bahrain chef de mission Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa said he was thrilled with the closing
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