The Qatari team, comprises of Al Attiyah, Faleh Al Ajami, Salmen Sultan Al Suwaidi and Salman Mohammed Al Emadi pose for a photograph after winning the silver medal in the team event of the equestrian competition.
Qatar capped their impressive performance at the Ashgabat 2017 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games by picking up a silver medal on the concluding day of the championship.
Yesterday, Qatari men fought a hard bowling battle against Chinese Taipei but went down in the final match as the curtains came down on the Games with Al Annabi athletes picking up a rich haul of 11 medals.
At the Turkmenistani capital of Ashgabat, Qatari men won four gold medals, four silver and three bronze medals to place themselves in the 15th position among 67 Asian nations in the medals tally.
Qatar’s last medal was won by Saoud Ahmad Abdulla, Ghanim Mohammed Aboujassoum, Yousef Abdulrahman Al Jabir and Jassim Mohamed Al Muraikhi who made up the men’s team of four bowling team.
Qatar marched into yesterday’s final after an impressive show over the hot favourites, South Korea, in the semi-final, but things did not go according to their plans against the strong Chinese Taipei outfit.
Chinese Taipei took advantage of Qatar’s errors to take the coveted title, their first at an Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
Anchor bowler Hao-Ming Wu led the charge in the 846-744 victory with seven strikes in a row for a 256.
Despite missing out on Qatar’s fifth gold on the final day of the Games, Qatar’s Aboujassoum was upbeat on winning the silver.
“A silver is a lot for us,” said Aboujassoum, whose team won Qatar’s first medal since Macau 2007.
“We have been preparing for months.
“We were focusing on this tournament to get at least one medal and we have reached our goal.”
Qatar’s four gold medals came in 3X3 basketball, athletics and individual equestrian event.
The Al Annabi cagers were no match for Iraq in the final of the men’s 3x3 basketball competition.
Erfan Saeed accounted for the biggest portion of Qatari total with 11 points while star cager Tanguy Ngombo shot six points in his short stay of just over five minutes on court. Abdulrahman Saad added four points and a point from Nedim Muslic rounded up Qatar’s total of 22 points. Their opponents could only post 12 points on the scoreboard as tournament favourites Qatar went on to win the top honours.
Qatar’s star rider Hamad Ali Al Attiyah bagged a gold medal when he prevailed in a blistering round in the Individual Jumping event of the equestrian competition.
It was his second medal at the 2017 Games, having already clinched the silver medal in the team event.
Al Attiyah, riding Clinton, Faleh Al Ajami (Armstrong van de Kapel), Salmen Sultan Al Suwaidi (Cantaro 32) and Salman Mohammed Al Emadi (Zorro Z) participated in the team event final and displayed an overall impressive performance to claim second position on the podium.
At the indoor athletics stadium, Abdalelah Haroun had entered the record books when he clocked 45.68 seconds in the men’s 400 metres final to win Qatar’s first gold medal at the Ashgabat Games.
The 20-year-old Qatari star’s performance erased the decade-old Games record of 46.08 seconds, held by China’s Wang Liangyu.
On the next day, the 2016 Asian Indoor Championships silver medallist, Jamal Hairane picked up pace in the final stretch to leave the others behind to take gold in 1:49.33 in the men’s 800 metres final.
Later, Hairane and Haroun teamed up with Mohamed Nasir Abbas and Ali Hassan Al Jassim in the men’s 4x400 metres relay team to secure the bronze in a keenly contested final.
Rashid Ahmed Al Mannai secured Al Annabi’s fourth medal when he leapt 15.99 metres to win the bronze as athletes accounted for the major portion of Qatar’s medal count at the Turkmenistani capital.
In billiards doubles, Iran overcame the Qatari duo Ali Nasser AL Obaidili and Ahmed Saif 3-0 in the final as Al Annabi had settle in with a silver medal.
Qatar secured a bronze medal in men’s Taekwondo through Ali Juma Al Aaraimi who beat South Korea’s Kim Seyoung in the 80kg weight class. In the semi-final, the Qatari martial artist lost to Iranian Erfan Nazemi who later went on to secure the gold medal.
Finally, Qatar’s Mohammed Al Sayed and Husein Aziz Nezad beat Iran before going down to China in the men’s rapid chess team event and settled for a bronze medal along with hosts Turkmenistan on the Penultimate day.
Despite earning but a single medal on the day, the Games hosts Turkmenistan finished Ashgabat 2017 with an overall triumph, having bagged a massive medal haul of 245 which included 89 golds. China and Iran finished in the second and third positions respectively as a spectacular Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games came to a close.
