Bahrain makes early exit in the women's bowling doubles event at AIMAG

BAHRAIN’s two pairs yesterday (July 3) made early exit in the women’s bowling doubles event in the Fourth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG), being held at Incheon, in South Korea.

Just 24 hours after both men’s pairs of Ahmed Al Qaoud/Taha Ebrahim and Masaud Akber/Isa Abduljabbar crashed out of their competition, the women’s teams could do little to avoid their compatriot’s fate at Anyang Hogye Gymnasium.

Noora Al Janahi and her partner Fatema Ali could finish 25th among 27 pairs combining a total of 1,708 points, while Layla Al Janahi and Majeda Saleh were last with 1,498 total. The Bahrainis are coached by former international bowler Aref Mersal.

Both Bahraini tandems faced opponents with more experience and higher skills as only the best eight pairs from the preliminary round managed to reach the quarter-finals knock-out round. The championship format counts the combined results of both players.

The men’s team of four preliminary round will be held today when Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Goud, Masood Saberi, Taha Ebrahim and Isa Abduljabbar team up against 18 other squads in the first block, which gets underway 4am (Bahrain time).

Late on, the women’s team of four preliminary round is also scheduled to take place as Bahrain’s team of Noora Al Janahi, Majeda Saleh, Layla Al Janahi and Fatema Al are set to face another daunting challenge.

Meanwhile, two of Bahrain’s up-and-coming cueists will be back in action today when they hope to make progress in the women's Nine-Ball singles event, scheduled to take place at Songdo Convensia at Incheon.

In their last-32 round matches, Fatema Yusuf Rajab will first take on Zoljargal Zorigt of Mongolia at 8am (Bahrain time), then Jomeya Al Doseri encounters Malaysia’s Suhana Sabtu at 11am for a berth in the last-16 round.

The Bahraini hopefuls yesterday had their last training sessions ahead of today’s clashes. This is their first-ever challenge for this group of young Bahraini cueists, whose selection was based on their performance in the 2013 domestic competitions.

Bahrain also sent a couple of their swimmers to Incheon last week. Farhan Faraj and Sameera Al Bitar, who returned home yesterday along with their coach Khalid Ahmed, had successfully set up new personal records in several events held at Dowon Aquatics Center.

Both swimmers, who competed in the 50m freestyle race, used this event to prepare for the Arab Championship that will begin later this month in Amman, in Jordan, as well as at the World Championship in Barcelona.

The Bahrain delegation to Incheon Games is being headed by Bahrain Olympic Committee sports Affairs executive director Noaman Al Hassan, who returned home last night.

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