JEDDAH, 11 April 2005 — Kazakhstan won three swimming gold medals yesterday to move to the top of the medals tally after the second full day of action in the 1st Islamic Solidarity Games.
Egypt and Malaysia were the other countries to end the day with multiple golds while Iran added the 60 kg category to their victories in team and individual kata in karate.
Underscoring their strength in the pool, Kazakhstan had 1-2 finishes in 100 meters freestyle through Khan and Cheta Renako and 200 meters backstroke through Dimitri and Stylav.
Victory by Razakove in the 200 meters breaststroke rounded out the fruitful day for Kazakhstan who on Saturday won the 50 meters butterfly and the 4X200 meters relay, as they posted a leading medal tally of five gold medals, four silvers and one bronze.
Egypt struck in the 200 meters butterfly through Amed Abdu who checked in ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alanikov and Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad Yousif.
The Egyptians also claimed another gold in karate when Muhammad Ibrahim Saleh ruled the 70 kg category, well in front of Husseinov of Azerbaijan and Saudi Yahya Ali.
The Malaysians showed their might in the three-meter platform diving by winning the first two places in the event with the Kazakhstan diver in third.
They also won the gold in under 55 kg category in karate thanks to Arbikan Shoran who beat Kazakhstan’s Tajankov into silver medal. Morocco’s Al-Bukhari Tawfeeq and Faisal Abdullah of the Kingdom were tied for bronze.
Morocco landed their first gold in the games when Nalawi Anwar grabbed victory in the 65 kg category. Egypt’s Waleed Bakr came in second and Azerbaijan’s Ashayeer and Meshal Al-Hindawi of Kuwait shared the bronze.
Saudi swimming sensation Ahmad Safwan Al-Kudmani who made a ripple on the opening day of the swimming competition Saturday when he posted an Arab record time of 28.99 seconds in winning the 50 meters breaststroke showed his Achilles’ heel in the longer distance.
He could only get the bronze in the 200 meters breaststroke, behind silver medalist Ayman Khattab of Egypt.
While Kazakhstan seemed to have a field day in the pool, Iran lorded it over on the mat at Prince Mohammad ibn Abdul Aziz Sports City in Madinah taking their third karate gold through Hassan Rahani who topped the 60 kg contest. Azerbaijan’s Jafar Yousif captured the silver while Algeria’s Omar Khoja and Saudi Abdul Aziz Masoud shared the bronze.
Elsewhere, Iran opened their campaign in football with a huge 9-0 victory over lowly Tajikistan in a Group A match at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.
In volleyball, Jordan were stretched to the limit before winning over Syria 3-2, Pakistan won 3-1 over Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Iran scored straight sets 3-0 victories over Sudan and Palestine. Jordan also won in handball against Iraq 33-29.
Also, Morocco 44 beat Pakistan 26; Bahrain 38 defeated Azerbaijan 28; Agleria 25 downed Syria 24; and Senegal 22 lost to Sudan 29 in the other matches.
The hosts hammered out a 3-0 win over Senegal in table tennis, a result that was matched by the five other winners yesterday, while Azerbaijan downed Palestine 3-1.
The five were Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan who beat Turkmenistan, Uganda, Sudan, Palestine, Djibouti and Jordan.
Striker Eman Sulaiman scored a hat trick of goals as Oman won 4-1 over Sudan in the other Group A contest in football. Fawzi Basheer struck the first goal on a penalty kick for Oman in the 25th minute. Sulaiman then scored the next three goals for Oman in the 61st, 63rd and 90th minutes.
In a lopsided match, Iran swamped Tajikistan with three goals in the first half and six more in the second.
The victory pushed Iran on top of Group A with 3 points. Oman are second with 3 points while Sudan and Tajikistan shared the cellar with no point.
— Additional input from Razan Baker
