DOHA, 7 December 2006 — The Saudi national bowling team did the country proud again when they won the men’s trios bronze medal in the Asian Games bowling competition at the Qatar Bowling Center here yesterday.
Winners of the gold in men’s doubles, the Al-Shaikh brothers Bader, 19, and Hassan, 16, teamed with Faisal Al-Juraifani to put away the bronze medal in the trios and give Saudi Arabia their second medal in this regional sports showcase considered as the Olympics of Asia.
The Saudi trio carded a second block of six games of 3,871 pinfalls with Hassan hitting 1,309, Al-Juraifani 1,180 and Bader 1,382.
The Malaysian three-man team of Tow Chuang Daniel Lim, Boon Hian Heng and Aaron Eng Chuan Kong rolled an Asian Games record of 4,089 en route to the gold medal.
Yu-Wen Lee, Nathan Jason Yeong and Remy Ong compiled 3,985 to give Singapore the silver medal. The medal ceremony for the trios was held yesterday with Saudi Bowling Federation President Ibrahim Al-Juraifani in attendance.
The five-man team, all-events and the prestigious Masters in both divisions complete the Games’ bowling program.
The men’s water polo action started yesterday with Saudi Arabia scoring an impressive 19-9 victory over Hong Kong in a Group B match at the Al-Sadd Aquatic Center.
The Kingdom handball team streaked to their third match victory in the men’s preliminary league Group C beating Uzbekistan 51-23 at Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall. The top scorer in the match was Turki Al-Anbaawi, who scored 12 goals out of 19 shots he made.
Although he played his favorite apparatus, vault, gymnast Maki Al-Mubiareek’s, 24, was left disappointed after a seventh-place finish in a field of eight in the men’s vault at the Aspire Hall yesterday.
Swimmer Yousef Al-Yousef, 18, missed his men’s 200m individual medley, the third time he failed to show up at the starting box due to injury.
He was also entered in the heats in the men’s 100m breaststroke and the men’s 50m Breaststroke earlier in the competition.
In the men’s 70.3km team trial in Al-Khor Road, the Saudi road cycling team of Yasin Bader Ahmed Alassiri, Jaber Majrashi and Ayman Al-Habriti wound up 11th with a final time of 1:33:16.20.
While the bowling team continue to reap success for the Kingdom, four other national teams along with their coaches and officials ended their missions in the Asian Games this year and are headed home.
The five-man swimming team with high hopes of wining instead left Doha empty-handed yesterday.
Two of the six judokas also left Doha yesterday and the remaining four to follow suit today along with the five-member gymnastics squad and the weightlifting team.
Ramzi Al-Mahrous, 24, the weightlifter who narrowly missed the bronze in the men’s 94kg on Tuesday said “I was about to win a bronze medal, but the injury I have in my knee hurt my chances and in the end I had to settle for fourth place.”
