Basketball team revive title hopes

Manama : Bahrain last night kept alive some hope of winning their first-ever basketball title at the Fifth GCC Women’s Games, being held in Doha, Qatar.
On the ninth day of the tournament, Bahrain returned to winning ways to beat the UAE 81-50 in the second leg’s first game in this three-team round-robin battle. Hessa Al Jaber (21) topped the scoring for Bahrain with contributions from Fatima Fardeen (17), Rini (14), Fatma Bushihri (10), Sima Ali (9), Hessa Ahmed (6) and Layla Mohammed (4) to the crucial victory. Bahrain now have a 2-1 win-loss record, and look forward to avenge their narrow 56-58 extra-time defeat to title holders Qatar tonight when the two sides clash tomorrow for the competition’s gold medal.
Elsewhere, Bahrain in the table tennis took the singles bronze medal, taking their tally to second overall finish with two silver and two bronze claimed earlier in the championships.
In the knock-out stage, Bahrain ace Kaltham Elyasi, Maryam Khami and Amal Al Nuaimi all crashed out, while the only Bahraini entrant Amal Al Nuaimi reached the semi-finals, but bowed out to Aya Majdi of Qatar 0-3 to settle for the bronze.
In bowling, Bahrain also had an unfortunate finish in the Masters championship, the concluding competition of bowling events, staged at Qatar Bowling Centre as Layla Janai (324 pins) marked Bahrain’s best result after reaching the semi-finals, but crashed out and compatriot Noora Sultan was also unable to clinch podium after being eliminated in the early stages of the competition.
Oman were crowned overall champions of the bowling events with 9 medals (5 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze). Bahrain were second with 4 (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), the UAE third with 3 (2 silver, 1 bronze) and Qatar (0) fourth.
Bahrain has also sent other teams for handball, volleyball, taekwondo, fencing and shooting championships at this 11-day Games in which teams from Qatar, the UAE and Oman have been competing in 10 sports.