DOHA, 5 December 2006 — Hassan Al-Sheikh and Bader Al-Sheikh pumped life into Saudi Arabia’s campaign in the 15th Asian Games by winning the men’s doubles final in bowling at the Doha Bowling Center here yesterday.

After a listless display in the first two full days of competition the Kingdom won their first medal courtesy of the Al-Sheikh brothers who won their first-ever bowling gold in the Asiad.

Hassan, 16 and Bader, 19, combined for a six-game series of 2,821 as Saudi Arabia led a West Asian podium sweep of the event with hosts Qatar and UAE, starring Abdullah Al-Qatani-Saed Al-Hajri and Jamal Ali Mohammad and Nayef Eqal Al-Abadla, sharing silver medals with identical series of 2,782.

Saudi Federation Bowling President Ibrahim Al-Juraifani was overjoyed by the result, the first time that Saudi Arabia won bowling gold medal in the history of the Asian Games after athletics with seven in the 2002 Busan Games and shooting in the 1994 edition.

“I’m so proud of the two brothers’ performance today as they are two of the best,” he said. “The team was well prepared from the beginning and I cannot deny the support of Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of Saudi Youth Welfare and Saudi Football Federation and his deputy Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, and Prince Nawaf ibn Mohammed, vice chairman, executive board of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee and president of Saudi Athletics Federation and deputy head of Saudi delegation to Doha Games.”

Prince Nawaf bin Mohamed visited the bowlers at the Athletes Village to congratulate them for a job well done.

“The competition yesterday was tough especially with Qatar, Thailand, UAE and Singapore. What helped the players today is that they focused on their playing without being anxious about the other teams’ scores,” said Yousef Al-Khalas, a bowling team official.

Hassan told Arab News before the contest that he was confident of winning a medal in spite of the short time of preparations for Doha 2006. Barely a week before the Games opening Saudi Arabia hosted the Gulf Championship in Jeddah.

“I won 17 medals so far since I started to play with the Saudi team,” the younger Hassan said.

The brothers’s victory augured well for further medals in the trios and team event, according to Al-Juraifani and Al-Khalas.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia scored their second straight victory in handball, beating Japan 26-25 at Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall. The men’s volleyball team remained unbeaten in four matches with a three sets to one victory over India at the Al Rayyan Indoor Hall.

And boxer Al Al-Ahmry provided another positive note for the Kingdom when he beat Ramos Isaac of East Timor in the lightflyweight preliminary bout.

It was a hectic day for the two judokas, Abdulrahman Al-Hazmi, 20, and Naif Mazyo, 20, who started competing from 2 p.m. yesterday at Qatar Sports Club Indoor Hall.

Al-Hazmi did five bouts yesterday. He won three and lost two. He won in the -66kg round of 32 contest beating Alisher Mantobetov of Kyrgyzstan.

In the Round of 16, he won against the Afghanistan Hussain Hussaini. He won his third match against Indonesian Peter Taslim in repechage to advance to a possible medal bout despite losing against two-time world champion Iranian Arash Miresmaeli.

He lost to eventual bronze medal winner Korean Kwang Sub-kim in the final repechage.

Unlike Al-Hazmi, Mazyo did not go far losing the 73kg round of 32 bout against Chi Yip Cheung from Hong Kong.

Saudi judo coach Mohammed Subai spoke to Arab News after the third bout of Al-Hazmi. The coach said it was a tough competition.

Al-Hazmi he said has been preparing for this competition for so long and went with his colleagues in a training camp for about a month in Japan before they arrived here.

“Since I joined the Saudi Judo team Al-Hazmi was there and he has been playing judo now for eight years,” he said.

“This on its own is an accomplishment for him and for his records,” the coach said.

In weightlifting, Faisal Al-Salmi, 21, was ruled out of the 77kg in the intermediate round.

The twins, Ahmed Al-Assiri and Nezar Al-Assiri, 29, lost the snooker doubles round of 32 match against the Bahraini pair who won 3-1 at Al-Sadd Multi Purpose Hall.

In shooting, Khalid Al-Zamil was ranked 36th with a score of 577 in the men’s 50m rifle prone elimination at the Lusial Shooting Range and was ruled out of the competition.

A disappointment was Saudi swimming ace Ahmed Al-Kudmani, 27, who was ruled out of the 100 meters breaststroke final after finishing fifth in his heat.