Bahrain bags more medals

The Kingdom of Bahrain athletes put on another splendid show at the 18th Asian Games, being held in Jakarta and Palembang. On the fourth day of athletics events, held at Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, the Bahrainis extended their superior run and notched four medals – two gold and two bronze to remain in 12th position in the medal table with 18 in total (8 gold, 3 silver 5 bronze). Kalkidan Befkadu opened Bahrain’s medal haul win of the day after coming first and third in the women’s 5,000m final in a time of 15 minutes and 8.08 seconds.

Maslova Daria (15:30.57) of Kazakhstan was second and another Bahraini Rebitu Bontu (15:36.78) was third. Manal El Bahroui folowed suit, racing to women’s 800m bronze in 2 minutes and 2.69 seconds. Chunyu Qang (2:01.80) clinched the gold, followed by silver medalist Margarita Mukasheva (2:02.40) of Kazakhstan.

Late on, the team of Ali Khamis, Abbas Abubakr, Oluwakemi Adekoya and Salwa Naser rounded off Bahrain’s victorious day by taking home the 4x400m mixed relay gold medal in total time of 3 minutes and 11.89 seconds. India (3:15.71) and Kazakhstan (3:19.52) were respective second and third.

The race saw Oluwakemi fall in her final metres after passing on the baton to Salwa, and was rushed to hospital for x-ray tests. There was even more joy for Bahrain as Edidiong and Yaqob Salem made it to the women’s and men’s 200m final.