JEDDAH, 31 May 2007 — Saudi Arabia won the five-man team gold medal and led after eight games in the Masters qualifying yesterday in the 2nd GCC Bowling Championship for the Deaf at the Sultana Center on Tahlia Street here.
Counting the singles victory by Mohammed Al-Oraif on opening day Saturday the Kingdom tied Bahrain with two golds apiece in the medal tally of the competition that ends today. Bahrain won the doubles and trios gold medals.
Al-Oraif carded an eight-game series of 1,730 pinfalls to lead the Masters hopefuls going into today’s final seven games. Ahmed Sultan of Kuwait ranked second with 1,728 followed by Bahrain’s Abdullah Abdulrahman with 1,705 pinfalls.
The top three finishers after the completion of 15 games play stepladder final matches. In the first match, the second and third qualifiers knock each other out for the right to face the No. 1 finalist over two games in which the bowler with the highest total pinfalls wins the Masters title.
Al-Oraif, who is in position for a second individual gold in the Masters event, has an excellent chance to become the most bemedalled athlete in the competition by winning the team gold in the five-man event for the hosts along with Fahd Al-Rumaih, Ahmed Abarqi, Nawaf Hariri and Saad Al-Hamoud. The Saudi quintet totaled 5,757 pinfalls, well in front of Bahrain who carded 5,495 courtesy of Abdulnassir Abdullrahman, Nidal Al-Miheizea, Mustapha Gaid, Ibrahim Ismael and Mohammed Al-Fadil. The UAE team of Walid Ahmed, Tariq Murad, Ali Jabir, Abdullah Ahli and Hussan Mohammed got the bronze medal.
