Juwana crashes out of taekwondo battle

Manama : Bahrain suffered another heartbreaking exit yesterday at the Fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, when Juwana Mohammed bowed out in the Round of 16 of the women’s 62kg and under category on the second day of taekwondo events at the Taekwondo DanceSport Arena.

The 17-year old Bahraini lost out 27-10 to Vietnam’s Thi Nguyen Ha and out of the battle for medals.

In the first round, the Vietnamese held a 9-5 points lead, then extended it to 19-9 following a (10-4) second round and finished off in style winning 8-1 in the third round.

It was an emotional outcome for Juwana, whose elder sister Jumana lost out in the quarter finals of the women’s under-73kg category on Tuesday, going down to her Philippine opponent Kirstl Alora 17-10 in the quarter-finals.

Bahrain stays on two medals, thanks to Ali Monfaradi and Ahmed Shebeeb, who took the men’s under-77kg gold and bronze medals, respectively on Monday.

Action continues today on the penultimate day of taekwondo competition, when Walaa Al Doseri, Bahrain’s last hope in this discipline heads into her opening women’s under-57-kg bout with Chimi Dolma of Bhutan at 7.30am (Bahrain time).

The trio Bahrainis are being coached by Tawfeeq Nuwaiser of Jordan, who earlier described the event is a golden opportunity for his young athletes to acquire more experience, improve their skills and boost their rating globally.

After the completion of taekwondo today, Bahrain’s last chance of medal success rests with Adam Batirov in the 70kg freestyle category, when the former Asian champion coached by Mahmood Magomedov is in action on Monday. In total, Bahrain has sent nine athletes in three sports disciplines – Jiu Jjitsu, Taekwondo and Wrestling for the 12-day games, being organised for the first time in a Central Asian country and featuring more than 6,000 athletes from 65 nations from Asia, Oceania and a Refugee team

Meanwhile, Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Bahrain chef de mission Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa visited Olympic Council of Asia president Shaikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah, who is also present in Ashgabat.

Both sides had discussions on the games progress and the tremendous success Turkmenistan achieved so far as the first central Asian nation to host this event.

Elsewhere, Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary Abdulrahman Askar headed his nation’s side at the Olympic Council of Asia meetings held in Turkmenistan’s capital on the sidelines of the games.

Shaikh Ahmed chaired the meeting, in which he commended the efforts of Ashgabat in bringing this continental gathering on its home soil as well as the opening ceremony programme, which he described as ‘outstanding.’