Bahrain’s medal hopes vanish
Manama : Bahrain’s hopes of winning a medal in taekwondo were ended yesterday when Walaa Al Doseri lost in the quarter finals of the women’s 57kg and under at the Fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
After Jumana Mohamed and her younger sister Juwana failed to reach the medal stages of their respective weight categories, Bahrain’s third and final team member Walaa Al Doseri was also unable to improve on her teammates finish.
The 20-year old opened her campaign in the Round of 16 and defeated Bhutan’s Chimi Dolma 10-6, after dominating the first round (8-4) and then fought a tight second round (2-2) to progress to the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals, Al Doseri was pitted against the more experienced Vietnamese Thi Anh Tuyet Tran who was a comfortable 29-6 winner using her overall strength and stamina to reach the semi-finals after winning the first round (7-4) and completely dominating the second round in winning (22-2).
Al Doseri had headed into the competition with high hopes of a medal he faced Chimi Dolma of Bhutan in the last-6 round, and lived up to many expectations by pulling off a 10-6 victory over her opponent to punch her ticket into the competition’s last eight.
Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Bahrain chef de mission Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary Abdulrahman Askar and other delegation officials witnessed the taekwondo bouts yesterday.
The trio Bahrainis are being coached by Tawfeeq Nuwaiser of Jordan, who had earlier described the event as a golden opportunity for his young athletes to acquire more experience, improve their skills and boost their rating globally.
Nine athletes are representing Bahrain in three sports disciplines – Jiu Jitsu, Taekwondo and Wrestling in the 12-day games.
Wrestler Adam Batirov holds Bahrain’s final hope of a medal at the games, when the 32-year-old will be fighting for a third medal at the games on Monday, when the Men’s Freestyle -70kg weight group events gets underway at 4pm (Bahrain time).
Batirov took part in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the FS 65kg category and lost in the Round of 16 to Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan.
He is also an Asian Wrestling Championship gold medal winner in 2016 in Thailand and is coached by Mahmood Magomedov.
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