Double gold joy for Bahrain
Manama : Bahrain yesterday had another outstanding day in athletics events at the fourth Islamic Solidarity Games, being held in Baku, in Azerbaijan.
The kingdom’s athletes grabbed two gold and one silver medal to take their tally to 11 medals in total, including 6 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze, thus moving up to eighth place among 33 nations competing at the games.
Bahrain’s first victory was marked by Ruth Jebet, who battled to a second gold medal of the Games. The long-distance star clinched victory after edging Turkey’s Yasemin Can in a thrilling women;s 5,000-metre final at Baku Olympic Stadium.
Jebet strolled to gold in the 3,000-metre steeplechase on Wednesday, but she was pushed all the way at the stadium after a superb effort from training partner Can. Can, the European 5,000 and 10,000-metre champion, attacked on the final lap, but the Olympic steeplechase champion responded superbly to edge ahead on the final straight as she won in 14 minutes and 53.41 seconds.
The Turkish runner had to make do with silver as she finished just nine hundredths of a second adrift of Jebet, while United Arab Emirates athlete Alia Mohammed rounded off the podium winning the bronze after a strong challenge from Kyrgyzstan’s Daria Maslova.
Bahrain’s second gold medal of the day was captured by Odiong Edidiong, who raced to victory in the women’s 200m final.
The short-distance runner completed the race in 22.95 seconds, edging Gina Bass of Gambia for a silver and Nigina Sharipova of Uzbekistan claimed a bronze.
Yaqoob Salem (20.56 seconds) completed the kingdom’s medal haul, winning the men’s 200m final silver after a tough battle with gold medalist Ramil Guliev (20.08) of Turkey.
Earlier, Bahrain’s Oluwakemi Adekoya breezed into the women;s 400 metre final to remain on track for a Baku double. The Bahraini, who won 400-metre hurdles gold on Wednesday, ran 51.46 seconds to blitz through her heat to qualify for today’s final.
Adekoya, along with compatriot Salwa Nassr, will both compete today in the gold-medal race at 5.20pm (Bahrain time).
Another Bahraini, Salwa Eid Naser, was the only athlete to get close to Adekoya’s time, as the 2015 world youth champion posted 51.94 seconds to win her heat. Nigeria’s Folasade Abigeal Abugan won the other heat.
Abraham Rotish, John Kibet and Evans Chematot were unable to follow suit as they failed to grab podium in their respective
challenges.
Rotish finished last in the men’s 800m final where he reached the end in 1:47.46, two seconds less than gold mdalist Mostafa Smaili of Morocco, while Kibet (8:34.27) and Chamatot (8:48.46) ended fourth and sixth, respectively in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase final, which saw another Moroccan Mohamed Tindouft (8:26.26) stroll away to win gold.
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