JEDDAH, 16 April 2005 — Saudi Arabia outdid themselves once again with five gold medals in athletics yesterday in the First Solidarity Games. The overachieving hosts are now well on their way to winning overall honors at these games with the end of the medal-rich events of swimming and athletics.

The African countries had been fancied to rule the blue-riband athletics competition but instead played second fiddle to the surprising Saudis who capped their mighty performance at the King Abdul Aziz Sports City in Makkah with a sweep of the relays.

Morocco stamped their class in the long distance running events winning the 5,000 meters and marathon golds, while Algeria ruled the 1,500 and Iran the javelin throw.

Iraq had the second best gold output delivered on the day with three thanks to weightlifter Heram Taha Ali who swept the golds staked in the snatch, clean and jerk and total in the 77 kg. category.

A day after lifters Abdulmohsin Abagair (3 golds) and Ali ibn Husain ibn Ali (2) and equestrian Prince Faisal ibn Saud Al Shallan (2) put together a seven-gold binge for Saudi Arabia the hosts’ golden run was far from finished. A dramatic victory by Hamid ibn Hamdan ibn Abdallah in the 200 meters that ended in a photo finish with Cameroon’s Batangdon Joseph, opened the Saudis’ final day charge in track and field.

Hamid clocked 20.72 seconds to Joseph’s 20.73. Senegal’s Loum Oumar got the bronze in 21.10.

The athletics program started with an early morning marathon race won by Moroccan Zayed Alaroosi in 2 hours, 16 minutes and 28 seconds. Algerian Saed Balhoot took the silver in 2:21.16 and Sudan’s Pilal Hag Nasir Kabngo the bronze in 2:23.01.

Morocco later added the gold in the 5,000 when Adil Kaouch posted a winning time of 14:11.25 ahead of Algeria’s Khodair Afoon and Samir Mosawi who captured the silver and bronze in 14:11.32 and 14.12.84.

Another Algerian, Tariq Bu Kansa, was the runaway winner in 1,500 in 3:47.01. Taking the silver in 3:47.61 was Moroccan Youssef Baba with Kansa teammate Aner Natg Alan bagging the bronze in 3:47.90.

Iranian Arakhi Ayou hurled the javelin to a distance of 70.66 meters for the gold, while Syrian Fras Zaal took home the silver in 65.26 and Iraq’s Essam Shalal Mohammad Alkhizai the bronze in 64.56.

In taking the overall title in athletics, the Kingdom yesterday also claimed the 110 meters hurdles and high jump through Mubarak Ata Mubarak and Omar Musa Hussain respectively, and swept the 4 x 100 and 4 X 400 in 39.89 seconds and 3:04.37 for a winning total of nine golds.

Sudan’s Matthews Jouda Matthews and Iran’s Asgari Gandmani Asgari Gandmani Ruhollah were the silver and bronze medalists in the hurdles. The same order of finish were filled by Egypt’s Ahmad Farooq Abdulzahir Ahmad Faroow and Burkina Faso’s Sere Boubaker.

The 4 X 100 relay silver went to Oman and the bronze to Ivory Coast, and in the 4 X 400 it was Sudan and Morocco that nabbed the silver and bronze.

Egypt also won the foil team gold in fencing with Kuwait taking the silver. There was no bronze medal awarded in the event.

Saudi Arabia also posted victory in volleyball over Turkmenistan 3-0 but suffered reverses in water polo 7-6 against Egypt and in basketball where they were eliminated by an Iranian team that used a big fourth quarter surge to score a 70-59 victory.

The Saudis ended the third quarter ahead by 51-44 as Waleed Al Madani keyed a 13-8 tear. But the Iranians dropped six treys in one stretch that broke the game wide open in the last quarter.

Jordan beat Saudi tormentor Tunisia 69-62 to assure themselves of at least a tie for a semifinal spot from their half of the quarterfinal draw.

In the other games, Chad beat Yemen 68-61, Libya crushed Sudan 83-56, Azerbaijan downed Morocco 70-55, Kyrgyzstan routed Pakistan 66--58 and Palestine edged Kuwait 94-91.

In tennis Pakistan hurdled their quaterfinal matches against Turkey 2-0 and Algeria which in turn bet Indonesia 2-1. Kuwait also won against Indonesia 2-0.

Elsewhere, Syria beat Malaysia 3-1 and Morocco pipped Mali 1-0 in a pair of football matches, Saudi Arabia beat Jordan 6-3, Iran whipped Senegal 11-1, Iraq crushed Kuwait 11-1 and Algeria overpowered Qatar 11-1 in goal ball.

In other matches in water polo, Iran blasted Kuwait 12-5 and Kazakhstan, the swimming champion in the 13-day games, clipped Azerbaijan 10-3.

— Additional input by Ebtihal Mubarak