Al Abbasi wins 10,000m gold for Bahrain

Dammam, Oct. 23 (BNA): Bahrain today won four additional medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) at the Second GCC Games, being held in Dammam, in Saudi Arabia. Al Hassan Al Abbasi raced to victory in the men’s 10,000m final on the inaugural day of the athletics events, being held at Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium. The Bahraini athlete clocked 29 minutes and 30.81 seconds to complete the race in first place, finishing ahead of his main opponents Tareq Al Amri (30:25.10) and Hasan Jamaan (31:50.87), both of Saudi Arabia. Abbas Abubaker then notched Bahrain’s second medal of the day by coming second in the men’s 400m race in 64.72 seconds. Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Masrahi (45.57) bagged the gold, while the bronze went to Ahmed Mubarak of Oman (47.24). Late on, Abdulrahman Khamis also managed to get podium for the kingdom in the long jump final, where he scored 7.60 metres to win the competition’s bronze medal. Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Mohammed managed 7.59 metres to win the gold medal. Bahrain’s fourth medal of the day came in the bowling team event where the quartet of Osama Abdulrahman, Ahmed Al Khaja, Ali Al Qaseer and Ahmed Al Awadi scored 3,805 in total with 300.21 average to secure the bronze medal. Saudi Arabia (4,847) bagged the gold medal, followed by silver medalists the UAE (4,818).The bowling championship concludes today with the Masters event, where Abdulrahman and Al Awadi look to win capture more medals for Bahrain. The results took Bahrain’s tally to 33 medals in total, including three gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze. They are presently fourth overall and behind top-of-the-table Saudi Arabia, second-placers, the UAE and third Oman. Meanwhile, Bahrain boosted their chances of winning the football competition gold medal after a 2-1 win over Qatar in their concluding game yesterday. Mohammed Al Hardan opened the scoring for Bahrain in the 65th minute, then Mohammed Marhaoon made it 2-0 five minutes later. Qatar pulled a goal back in the 73rd minute through Mishal Al Shammari. This competition only features three teams, with Saudi Arabia being the other nation in the fray. Bahrain, who drew goalless with Saudi Arabia in the opening match, now hope that Saudi Arabia stumble in concluding game today against Qatar to win the gold medal. Meanwhile, Bahrain’s title chances in the basketball tournament were vanished after a 65-70 defeat to the UAE at the Youth Care Hall yesterday. Bahrain’s coach Aqeel Milad started the game with Hussain Shaker, Mohammed Quayyed, Mohammed Qurban, Bader Abdulla and Ahmed Najaf. It was the second consecutive defeat for Milad’s side, having lost their opener 49-61 to Qatar. Bahrain’s third and last game in this single round robin competition is scheduled for tomorrow against Saudi Arabia. Elsewhere, Bahrain’s national judo team arrived in Dammam yesterday ahead of the action starting on Saturday. Spearheading Bahrain in the competitions are Ali Al Shaikh, Fadel Mousa, Mahmood Al Aradi and Yousef Ebrahim. They will be fighting in a variety of weight categories – 60kg, 66kg, 73kg and 81kg.