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Asian Games
Bahrain exacted revenge on Qatar in a nail-biting match, defeating them 33-32 en route to capturing the men's handball gold medal for the first time in its history at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Tuesday.
In a quintessential Bahraini day, the Kingdom's male and female runners shone on the final day of the athletics events, bagging 3 colored medals distributed between one gold and two silvers.
Bahrain raised its tally to 11 gold medals, taking sixth place in the overall standings.
Kuwait dominated the trap shooting events by winning two golds and two bronzes.
In handball, the Bahraini national team settled scores against the "Maroons" after losing to them in the finals of the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games.
The "Maroons" failed to retain their gold medal after being crowned champions of the past three editions of the competition, which was first included in the Games in 1982.
Ahmed Fadhel Jalal was the star of the match, scoring Bahrain's last-gasp winner in the final seconds to make it 33-32.
Qatar and Bahrain reached the final after defeating South Korea 32-30 and hosts Japan 35-31 respectively in the semi-finals.
The qualification of the two Gulf nations for the final was not surprising, as Bahrain entered the competition as the Asian champion—a title it won early this year in Kuwait by defeating Qatar itself in the final 29-26 after extra time.
5,000m gold for Balew after the 10,000m
On the "Queen of Sports" track, Bahraini Birhanu Balew (30 years old) was crowned with the 5,000m gold, his compatriot Nelly Jepkosgei (or Nelly Chepchirchir / Nellie Korir depending on translation convention, keeping Korir as written) secured the 800m silver, and the women's team finished second in the 4x400m relay.
Balew (30 years old), who also triumphed in the 10,000 meters, crossed the race distance in a time of 13:30.79 minutes, finishing 0.64 seconds and 1.96 seconds ahead of Japan's Tomonori Yamaguchi and India's Gulveer Singh, respectively.
Korir won the 800m silver on a wet track with a time of 2:05.16 minutes, finishing 0.67 seconds behind China's Hongjiao Yu, who claimed the gold.
This is Korir's second medal in the "Queen of Sports" following her gold in the 1500m event with a new Asian Games record (4:05.50 min).
Bahrain added a silver in the women's 4x400m relay by finishing second behind India.
Bahrain raised its tally in the "Queen of Sports" events to 12 colored medals (8 golds, 2 silvers, and 2 bronzes), and to 20 medals in the current edition of the Games, distributed between 11 golds, 5 silvers, and 4 bronzes.
In the men's 800m race, Qatar's Abubaker Haydar Abdalla claimed the bronze, crossing the finish line in 1:45.25 minutes, 0.77 seconds behind Japan's Ko Ochiai, who took the gold with a new Games record (1:44.48 min).
Iran's Ali Amirian finished second after a late surge that allowed him to overtake Abubaker on his way to claiming the silver (1:45.10 min).
Abubaker told Qatar's beIN Sports channels, "In the final stretch, I lost second place, but thank God I remained on the podium."
In the men's 4x400m relay, Qatar maintained the silver for the second consecutive time following the previous edition, recording 3:00.93 minutes, 0.18 seconds behind the victorious Japanese team.
Kuwait dominates trap shooting
Kuwait's Khaled Al-Mudhaf won the men's trap gold medal in rainy conditions during an exciting final decided in the final moments by hitting 26 targets with a new Games record, finishing one target ahead of former Asian champion and 2018 Jakarta medalist Kun-Pi Yang of Chinese Taipei, who took the silver.
China's Ying Qi, holder of the 2024 Olympic silver and the Hangzhou gold from two years prior, won the bronze medal.
Al-Mudhaf, who was crowned world champion in 2002, fought back tears and appeared emotional as he told Qatari beIN Sports: "One target leads you to gold, and I didn't know what the score was. I was just focusing on hitting my target and didn't know what was happening, but when I saw my teammates shouting while I was getting ready to continue shooting due to intense concentration, I didn't realize it was the final target..."
Al-Mudhaf placed the yellow metal around his neck in shooting for the second time within hours after leading the men's team to first place with 355 targets in a final marked by pure Arab competition, with Qatar taking second place and winning the silver (349).
Kuwaiti shooters reclaimed the precious metal in the individual and team trap events—which they last won at the 2010 Games—by displacing China, Chinese Taipei, and India from the throne of the current edition.
In the women's individual final, Kuwait's Hajar Abdulmalik won the bronze medal by finishing third behind India's Neeru Neeru, who claimed the gold with an Asian record (28 targets), and China's Yunong Sun.
In the team events, Kuwait's female shooters finished third and won the bronze medal behind China and India, while fourth place went to the Qatari female shooters.
In weightlifting events, an administrative error deprived Iraqi weightlifter Ali Ammar Yaser of the over-110kg gold medal, leaving him with the silver after he had broken the world record in the snatch by lifting 219kg.
Bahrain's Alina Marushchak won the silver in the women's 86kg category, and Qatar's Wessal Khafaji (or Wessal Yakhlef) won the bronze in the over-86kg category.
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