JEDDAH, 15 April 2005 — Saudi Arabia got a big lift, literally and figuratively, from their weightlifters to win five gold medals yesterday in the First Islamic Solidarity Games.
Later in the night, Prince Faisal ibn Saud Al Shallan rode high with victories in individual and overall of the four-day show jumping event in equestrian for a further two golds to complete a seven-gold binge by the Kingdom.
It was the most memorable and fruitful day in the Kingdom’s campaign in the games topping their haul of six golds the day before.
Abdulmohsin Albagair clinched three golds and Ali ibn Husain ibn Ali added two in their weight categories in awe-inspiring performances that propelled the Kingdom to the top of the medals table even before the equestrian results could come in.
Kazakhstan, who until yesterday led the medals tally thanks to their total domination of the swimming competition, were shut out of golds for the first time in the games with only a silver to show from weightlifting.
But two other Central Asian countries, Turkemenistan and Tajikistan, each claimed a gold medal in weightlifting and athletics respectively with Egypt extending the African athletes’ golden show from the track to fencing ring.
Naser Azidan ruled the under 67 kg category in taekwondo to give Iran the gold medal with Indonesia winning the gold in the under 78 kg category in the event when Bsuki Nijro beat Senegal’s Mubaei Abdullah in the final.
Another Iranian, Salam Kaduri, and Moroccan Aziz Al-Mahdi got bronze medals.
Strongman Abagair swept the snatch, clean and jerk and total lifts in the 69 kg. category. The silver in the snatch went to Kazakhstan’s Mutosove, in the clean and jerk to Malaysian Muhammad Hedaya Hamdan and total lifts to Mahdi Bsiove of Kyrgyzstan who also took the bronze in the clean and jerk. Abagair’s teammate Jafar Baker captured the bronze in the snatch.
Ali’s twin gold came in the 62 kg. clean and jerk and total lifts where he amassed a winning 282.50 kgs. ahead of Turkemenistan’s Bazabayev Umurbek who got the silver in 280 kgs. and Iraq’s Salim Abdallah Mazhar who bagged bronze in 272.50.
The clean and jerk silver fell in the lap of Mazhar and bronze to Umurbek who recovered to win the gold in the snatch where Ali and Turkemenistan’s Hudaybergenov Tolkunbek put away the silver and bronze medals respectively.
In equestrian, a sport held dear by the hosts outside of football, Al Shallan, at 17 already a veteran international, added more laurels to his name with a brilliant performance yesterday at the King Abdul Aziz University riding facility here.
Al Shallan showed the way home to compatriot and 2000 Sydney Games bronze medalist Khaled Al-Eid for a 1-2 Saudi finish in the overall where Muhammad Al Kumaiti of UAE snared bronze.
Al Shallan posted a time of 3.02 minutes in a near-flawless display at the difficult course. El-Eid returned 4.40 and Kumaiti 4.46.
Kumaiti finished runner-up to Faisal in the individual show jumping contest his compatriot Adel Khamees grabbing the bronze.
Veteran Hamdan Al Bishi prevented a medal shutout by the Kingdom in athletics when he clinched the 400 meters silver behind Sudan’s gold medaist Ali Abu Bakr Adam.
The honors were spread out with not one country winning multiple golds. Algeria’s Marzaq Walad ruled the 3,000 meters steeplechase, Syrian’s Mohammad Abdulhameed Hazoori the triple jump and Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan the hammer throw.
Sudanese Idris Yousif Idris Musa and Tunisian Imad Alrabdi were the silver and bronze medalists in the steeplechase, Senegal’s Badji Ndiss Kaba and Algeria’s Hamza Monaina finished in the same order in the triple jump as did Kuwait’s Mohammad Jasim Mobarak Aljohar and Sabir bin Habeeb of Tunisia in the hammer throw. Moroccan Abdulatif El Ghazoui was the bronze medalist in the 400 meters.
Egypt won the team gold in fencing with Iran taking the silver and Saudi Arabia the bronze.
A 65-47 defeat in the basketball quarterfinal by strong Tunisia squad was the only blot in the Kingdom’s performance yesterday, as the hosts also opened up with a 12-5 rout of Egypt in football for the blind and a 19-7 beating of Kuwait in water polo.
Elsewhere, Iran beat Jordan 77-62, Morocco downed Syria 67-65 and Algeria rolled back Azerbaijan 79-74 in the other matches in basketball. Pakistan advanced into the tennis team event quarterfinals following victories over Azerbaijan 3-0 and Somalia 3-0.
— Additional input from Muhammad Al-Sheikhi and Mahmoud Ahmad
