JEDDAH, 14 April 2005 — As Kazakhstan ended their gold rush in swimming, Saudi Arabia started their own in many fronts winning three golds in athletics, two in weightlifting and another in football for the handicapped yesterday in the First Islamic Solidarity Games.

Kazakshtan put the exclamation point to their overpowering display in the pool with a sweep of the last four events contested to bring their winning medal tally in swimming to 13 gold medals, five silvers and four bronzes.

But the day truly belonged to the Kingdom with the hosts putting everyone in the shade by winning six golds in a single-day haul that was the most by any team so far in the 13-day games spread out in the four cities of Makkah, Madinah, Taif and Jeddah.

The Saudis’ remarkable performance in the blue-riband athletics event was marked by a 1-2 finish in the 400 meters hurdles and a new Asian record of 8.44 meters in the long jump by Muhammad Al-Khuwaildi.

Ibrahim Al-Humadi showed the way home to fellow Saudi veteran Hadi Souan in 49 seconds in hurdles with Algeria’s Abdulrahman Hamadi taking the silver.

Salim Al-Yami’s victory in the 100 meters final set the tone of the Saudi golden day at the King Abdul Aziz Sports City in Makkah where the Kingdom took half the number of golds on offer.

Morocco plucked two golds courtesy of Amin Lalu in the 800 meters at 1 minute and 45.096 seconds and Muhamad Karbib in javelin throw. The discus throw gold medal went to Egypt’s Omar Al-Ghazali who hurled the disc to a distance of 59.98 meters, well in front of Saudi Sultan Al-Dawoudi and Iran’s Hadadi Ehsan who threw 59.00 and 58.66 for the silver and bronze respectively.

Another silver medal finish was returned by Saudi Muhammad Al-Salhi in 1:46.19 in the 800 meters where Sudan’s Esmail Ahmad took the bronze.

Jamal Al-Saffar, also of Saudi Arabia, claimed the bronze behind Burkina Faso’s Tanu Idreesa in 100 meters, while Kuwait’s Ali Maki and Muhammad Muhsin of Iran also broke into the medal column by bagging the silver and bronze respectively in the javelin throw.

Stanislav Ossinsky won the 50 meters freestyle gold then added another when he anchored the Kazakshtan’s quartet that also includes Yevgenly Ryzhkov, Rustam Khaudiyev and Vitaly Khan to victory in the 4 X 100 medley relay in a runaway time of 3:49.71. Egypt settled for the silver at 3:54.68 and Turkey got the bronze at 4:01.59.

Oleg Shteinkov in the 50 meters freestyle, and Dimitri Gordienko in the 200 meters individual medley rounded out Kazakhstan’s gold medal finishes.

Egypt, who also had a silver and a bronze by Hazemx Haitham and Mohammed Mamdouh in 50 meters backstroke and 50 meters freestyle, finished second overall to Kazakhstan with a tally of three golds, eight silvers and four bronzes. Malaysia have three golds to show for third overall.

Over at King Abdul Aziz University indoor hall here, the Saudi special football team for the handicapped scored a comprehensive 5-2 victory over Iran in the gold medal game. Algeria beat Iraq 3-2 in the battle for bronze.

Saudi lifter Abdul Lateef Al-Abdul Lateef accounted for two gold medals — in the snatch and total lift — and settled for the silver in the clean and jerk.

Also winning gold medals yesterday were Egypt in table tennis, Morocco in taekwondo and Iran in karate team event and fencing through Mujtaba Abadani.

Elsewhere, Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and Bahrain made the handball semifinals following victories over Syria 35-28 and Jordan 36-35 in the quarterfinals that also saw Egypt beat Tunisia 28-22 and Algeria down Morocco 33-28.

Saudi Arabia also kept their unbeaten records in basketball, beating Kuwait 90-86 in Group C, and volleyball, defeating Algeria 3-2, in Group D.

Jordan joined Syria as quarterfinal qualifiers from Group A in basketball by beating Syria 70-63, while Morocco also finished the eliminations unbeaten in Group B by edging Iran 91-90.

Algeria also qualified from group D by beating Tunisia 70-66. Yemen crushed Somalia 80-41 in Group C and Pakistan beat Tajikistan 73-51 in Group D in a pair of non-bearing games.

—Additional input from Muhammad Al-Sheikhi and Mahmoud Ahmad