Monfaredi wins gold for Bahrain

Manama : Ali Monfaredi yesterday won Bahrain’s maiden medal at the Fifth Asian Beach Games, being held in Da Nang, Vietnam.

The 23-year-old put on a spirited show to clinch the 77kg gold medal in the jiu jitsu championship after a well-contested battle with Jordan’s Hamzeh Haitham in the final.

Monfaredi, the son of Bahrain’s jiu jitsu veteran Reza Monfaredi, started his campaign winning the opening tie against Hansel Terence of the Philippines in the round of 32 and then moved to the last-16 round, where he halted Chaitany Babon’s challenge to set up his quarter-final clash with Abdulkarim Zaid of Jordan.

Monfaredi used his strength and ability to brush aside Zaid to reach the semi-final clash, in which he defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Murtazali Murtazaliev to reach the gold medal tie.

Meanwhile, Bahrain suffered their first defeat in the beach handball championship, going down 1-2 to Pakistan in a Group ‘A’ tie. Despite having a good start to the match and taking the first period 19-18.

The Bahrainis’ performance had a major drop in the second period,which saw Pakistan win 21-16.

In the third and final period, Bahrain put up a good fight but the physical strength and experience of their opponents played a major part in the final score (9-6).

Sayed Shehab Ahmed, who had inspired Bahrain to their win over Thailand was again the top scorer in yesterday’s match with eight goals and the team coached by Raed Al Marzooq also saw goals from

Jaffer Abbas (5), Belal Bahsam (4), Mahmood Ali, Adam Al Nasheet (2 each), Fahad Jassim (1) and goalkeeper Hussain Al Qaydoom.

In bodybuilding, Bahrain’s trio Ali Qassab (162kg), Jassim Marhoon  (168kg) and Mohammed Rashid (+168kg) underwent the weigh-in session yesterday and will enter the pre-judging today.