Bahrain clinches football gold medal

Dammam, Oct.26 (BNA) Bahrain made a perfect finish at the Second GCC Games, which came to an end in Dammam, in Saudi Arabia. The nationals captured the gold medal of the football championship after tough battle at Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Stadium. Bahrain secured the title with four points from a goalless draw with host nation Saudi Arabia and a 2-1 victory over Qatar in a three-nation round robin event. The concluding game yesterday between Saudi Arabia and Qatar ended 2-1 in favour of the former, who leveled Bahrain’s record of four points and a one-goal advantage. To decide the championship, the organizers conducted a draw after the match, in which the Bahrainis were granted the competition’s gold medal while the Saudis took the silver and Qatar the bronze. This was the seventh gold medal for Bahrain, who took their tally to 43 medals in total, which also includes 20 silver and 16 bronze. They came fourth overall in the medal table at the end of the games. Saudi Arabia ended the games on top with 101 medals (52 gold, 30 silver 19 bronze). They were followed by the UAE with 69 medals (26-19-24) and Qatar with 50 medals in second and third places, respectively. The Bahrainis, under national tactician Abdulaziz Abdo, were watching closely the concluding game of the football tournament and hoped to seed the Saudis stumble against the Qataris to win the competition’s crown. Qatar started the game well and went ahead after 30 minutes through Bassam Hisham’s header, but Mohammed Attiya equalized for the Saudis two minutes later, then Raed Al Ghamdi fired the winner in the last minute of the first-half. The football team delegation is being headed by Shaikh Khalid bin Salman Al Khalifa, and includes 23 players from the under-21 and the Olympic squads. They include Abdulaziz Hussain, Mohammed Jamal, Ahmed Mohammed, Hussain Jameel, Ahmed Mubarak, Faisal Shawqi, Emad Abdulla, Mohammed Jassim, Talal Ali, Reda Mohammed and Abdulaziz Khalid. The remaining players are Ebrahim Alawi, Ghanim Ahmed, Ahmed Saleh, Abdulla Ali, Jassim Reda, Ziyad Ali, Mohammed Yousef, Ali Ahmed, Ahmed Hashim, Yousef Habib, Kumail Abdulla and Mujtaba Mohammed. Bahrain sent 12 disciplines for this two-week regional gathering. The remaining 11 teams competed in athletics, volleyball, basketball, handball, table tennis, bowling, weightlifting, swimming, judo, karate and goalball.