Gold rush for Bahraini athletics!

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s national athletics team enjoyed a brilliant start to the third GCC Games yesterday, winning 13 medals including seven gold both on the track and in the field. Bahrain’s athletes also captured three silver medals and three bronze, making for a fantastic medal haul in the first of three days of athletics events in Kuwait.

Among the gold-medallists yesterday were Noora Jasim in the women’s shot put, Aminat Jamal in the women’s 100m hurdles, Fatima Mubarak in the women’s long jump, Bontu Rebitu in the women’s 10,000m, Muna Mubarak in the women’s 400m, Abdelrahman Mahmoud in the men’s shot put and Albert Rop in the men’s 10,000m.

The silver medals were claimed by Violah Jepchumba in the women’s 10,000m, Awatif Ahmed in the women’s 400m and Abraham Cheroben in the men’s 10,000m; while the bronze medals were won by Saleha Lahdan in the women’s 100m hurdles, Hajar Alkhaldi in the women’s 100m and Abbas Ali in the men’s 400m.

In yesterday’s women’s events, Noora captured her gold medal in the women’s shot put with a massive throw of 14.11 metres in the final. She registered the winning mark twice in her six attempts, which also included throws of 12.92m, 13.00m, 14.06m and 13.98m.

Noora outclassed the competition, as her closest rival could not clear 12m. In the women’s 100m hurdles, Aminat clinched first place in a time of 13.68 seconds. She narrowly beat Mazoon Al Alawi of Oman, who was the runner-up in 13.87s.

Bahrain’s Saleha completed the podium placers in 15.47s. In the women’s long jump final, Fatima clinched first place with a best jump of 5.84m. Her other successful attempts were 5.47m, 5.83m and 5.63m. Latifa Alkaabi of the UAE was her nearest challenger, clearing 5.34m.

The women’s 10,000m final saw a dominant performance from Bahrainis Bontu and Violah, who claimed an impressive one-two with nearly an eight-minute gap from third place. Bontu captured the gold medal in 34 minutes 26.27 seconds, while Violah won her silver in 34:33.62.

In the women’s 100m final, Hajar narrowly missed out on gold after finishing in 11.56s for the bronze medal. Mazoon from Oman was the winner in 11.47s, while Mudahawi Alshammari from Kuwait was second in 11.52s. Bahrain enjoyed another fine one-two in the women’s 400m final, with Muna taking the win in 52.80s.

Awatif followed for the silver in 56.80, while Fatma Alb - looshi from the UAE took bronze in 1:06.33. Successful I n t h e m e n ’s events last night, Mahmoud won his shot put gold medal with a fine throw of 20.74m. His other successful attempts from six tries were 20.24m and 19.76m.

Mohamed Tolo of Saudi Arabia was his closest challenger with a throw of 20.49m. Rop then added his 10,000m gold to Bahrain’s medal haul after completing his race in 29:15.97. Cheroben followed to capture the silver medal in 29:30.00, while Abas Abdulrahman of Kuwait won the bronze medal.

The Bahrainis wrapped up their medal wins last night in the men’s 400m final, where Ali claimed the bronze in 45.96s. He barely missed out on the gold, which went to Ammar Ibrahim of Qatar who finished in 45.76s, while Mazen Alyaseen of Saudi won the silver in 45.83s.

Bahrain’s Musa Isah almost also made it onto the podium, finishing fourth in 46.98s. Bahrain’s medal bids continue today with another group of the Kingdom’s world-class athletes set to compete.