Bahrain bags GCC Games medals

Dammam, Oct.16 (BNA): Bahrain today opened its medal account at the Second GCC Games, being held in Dammam, in Saudi Arabia.
Abdulla Al Mejdami gave Bahrain three bronze medals in the clean, jerk and total in the 56kg event of the weightlifting championship at Prince Saudi bin Jalawi Gym in Al Raka. Saudi Arabia’s Mansoor Al Saleem took the gold, while UAE’s Ahmed Jassim bagged for the silver.

Three of Bahrain’s finest weightlifters will be in action tomorrow when Salman Al Kindi competes in the 69kg division Yousef Al Shirawi in the 86kg event and Hamad Ayyash in the 94kg section.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s national volleyball team made it three wins in as many matches. They edged host country Saudi Arabia 3-1 (25-17, 29-31, 25-20, 25-19) in a 75-minute match to closer towards retaining the title they won in the first edition of the games held in Bahrain in 2011.

Trio spikers Jassim Al Nabhan, Mahmood Abdulwahed and Hasan Dahi played a major part in the victory, scoring crucial points in different stages of this crunch match.

Ali Al Sairafi, Ali Ebrahim, playmakers Hussain Al Haiki and Mahmood Al Afya and libero Ayman Haroona were also other prominent players for Bahrain in yesterday’s game, which was witnessed by a big crowd.

The victory put Bahrain on top of this five-team round robin competition with eight points and one match remaining against second-placers Oman. Saudi Arabia missed the opportunity of moving back into the competition and will now vie for the bronze medal.

In another match, Qatar eased to a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-11) win over the UAE to reach their sixth point and share Oman second position.

The concluding day of the volleyball championship is tomorrow (Sunday) when Bahrain face Oman at 3.15pm, then Saudi Arabia meet Qatar at 5.30pm.

In the handball championship, Bahrain started their title campaign with an impressive 31-25 win over competition favourites and world championship runners-up Qatar at Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Sports City yesterday. Bahrain also led the game at half-time with a 14-10 advantage.

Bahrain’s coach Borut Macek was pinning hopes on some of his experienced players as well as several new talents named recently, including veteran skipper Jaffer Abdulqader, Hasan Shehab, Mohamed Mirza and Jassim Al Salatna.
In another match, the UAE went down 20-23 to Saudi Arabia, who were also leading the game 12-11 at half-time. Oman had a rest day.

This championship is also being played in a single round robin format and the team to finish with the highest number of points will be crowned champions on the concluding day on October 22.

The curtains came down on the goalball championship yesterday at Prince Saudi bin Jalawi Gym in Al Raka, where Bahrain suffered their third defeat in a row to finish at the bottom of the competition with no points. Bahrain were handed a 6-13 defeat to Qatar, who took the bronze medal.

Abdulaziz Abdulnabi, Mohsin Abdulrazzaq and Ebrahim Al Mudaweb spearheaded the Hussain Meshaima-coached Bahrain team in yesterday’s concluding match.