Bahrain yesterday (Wednesday) captured four gold and three bronze medals at the ongoing Fourth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Ruth Jebet raced to victory in the women’s 3,000-metre steeplechase on day two of athletics to give Bahrain its first gold medal at the games.
The Olympic champion, who is arguably the biggest star at these Games, won yesterday’s race by over 10 seconds during the morning session at the Olympic stadium.
Her time of 9 minutes 15.41 seconds was over 21 seconds off her own world record she set in Paris last year, but she looked effortless in the Baku sunshine in front of another sparse crowd.
Algeria’s Amina Bettiche (9:25.90) came in second place, followed by another Bahrain runner Tigest Mekonen, who completed this race in third place in 9:26.00 to seal the bronze.
The Bahraini athletes continued to impress late on as Adekoya Oluwakemi clocked 54.75 seconds to capture a second gold in the women’s 400m steeplechase final, in which compatriot Aminat Yusuf notched a bronze.
Ali Khamis completed the athletics triumph winning Bahrain’s third gold in the men’s 400m in 45.54 seconds, while Noora Jassim handed Bahrain its third bronze in the shot put event.
Bahrain’s fourth gold medal of the day was won by the shooting team of Maryam Hasani and Hasan Al Majed in the skeet mixed team event at the shooting field.
The Bahraini pair scored 27 points in the final against host nation Azerbaijan, who could score 24 points to settle for the silver. Turkey took the bronze after beating Azerbaijan 25 (+2) – 25 (+1) in the final.
Hasani and Al Majed celebrate their victory with members of the Bahrain delegation, headed by Supreme Council for Youth and Sports deputy general secretary and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) general secretary Abdulrahman Askar.
Andrew Fisher opened Bahrain’s medal account at the Games, racing to second place finish in the men’s 100m final on Tuesday.
Bahrain now jumped from 24th to 8th position in the medal table with eight medals in total, including 4 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze. Their medal haul promises to see an increase in the next three days in bid to move up in the overall medal standings in this 33-nation games.
