Bahrain bags maiden medal

Manama : Bahrain yesterday captured its maiden medal at the Fourth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Andrew Fisher opened Bahrain’s medal account at the Games, racing to a second place finish in the men’s 100m final at Baku Olympic Stadium.

The Bahraini short-distance runner completed the race in 10.16 seconds, just behind his Turkish opponent Ramil Guliev (10.06 secs), who took the gold and Oman’s Barakat Al Harthi (10.36) rounded off the podium after coming third for a bronze.

Fisher (10.20) began his medal campaign by topping his heat race to qualify for the semi-finals, in which he also excelled (10.22) to reach the gold-medal race later in the day.

Bahrain’s other athletes were less fortunate as Hajer Al Khaldi, Iman Essa, Linus Kiplagat and Aweke Ayalew came close to podium finish, but failed in the last challenge.

Al Khaldi (11.75) and Essa (11.78) both were fifth and sixth, respectively in the women’s 100m final, while Kiplagat (13:35.53) and Ayalew (13:36.31) could only finish in seventh and eighth places in the men’s 5,000m final.

Yesterday’s action got underway with Bahrain men’s shooting trio of Hassan Mohammed, Nasser Khalaf and Tammar Al Watt spearheading Bahrain at the men’s skeet qualifying round at Baku Shooting Centre.

The trio, coached by Australian tactician Valeriy Timokhin, were unable to reach the final round of the competition and out of the gold medal race.

Action in the games continues today with Bahrain looking to build on their medal tally through Manal El Bahraoui and Marta Hirpato, who will both race in the women’s 800m final. Bahrain will also have high hopes for their short and middle distance runner Adekoya Oluwakemi, who is racing in the women’s 400m final later today.

Ali Khamis and Abbas Abubaker are both with a chance to add to Bahrain’s overall medal tally in the men’s 400m final. Other athletes in action today include Andrew Fisher and Yaqoub Salem (men’s 200m heats), Salwa Eid and Edidiong Ofonime (women’s 200m heats) and Noora Jassim (shot put final).

The games continue until May 22 and will also see Bahrain compete in wrestling through Adam Batirov.

Turkey leads the medal table with 43, followed by Azerbaijan (30), Iran (9), Indonesia and Uzbekistan (6 each). More than 3,000 athletes from 54 countries, nearly 2,000 representatives of teams and technical staff are participating in the Games.

Competitions are held in Azerbaijan’s capital on 16 sports grounds in 20 sports, three of which are non olympic events with 269 sets of medals up for grabs.