Oman’s Hussain bags swimming gold, bronze at inaugural GCC Youth Games

Muscat: Oman’s talented swimmer Hussain Tariq brought glory for the Sultanate when he won two medals on Saturday at the ongoing inaugural GCC Youth Games.

Hussain won the gold in the 400m individual medley event and then capped a stunning day with a bronze in the 50m breaststroke event.

It was a fruitful Saturday for Oman at the Games in the pool as Ibrahim Saleh won the bronze in the 200m butterfly event.

There was further success for Oman as the paddlers clinched a bronze in the girls’ doubles category. Taliya Al Rawahi and Salma Al Nasri teamed up to bag the second medal of the day as Oman’s overall tally rose to 46 with 40 in general sports and six medals won by the para athletes earlier.

Oman athletes including para athletes have so far won a total of 14 gold, 10 silver and 16 bronze medals.

The Omani pair of Taliya and Salma defeated UAE’s Hussa Al Nimr and Maryam Yaqib 3-2 to book a spot in the semi-finals and secure the medal.

In the semis, the duo lost to eventual winners Fatima Al Aali and Kinda Mahmoud of Bahrain.

In the boys’ doubles competition, Oman’s Ali Al Rawahi and Nasser Al Zaabi lost to the Qatari pair 2-3 in the quarterfinals.

On Thursday, Oman cyclists won the team bronze in the 40km race as they clocked 3hrs:5min:54sec to finish behind the UAE (silver, 3:05:49) and the Saudi Arabia (gold, 3:02:42).

The Oman team consisted of Mohammed Al Fadhili, Ahmed Al Ajmi, Wase Al Miqbali, Abdullah Al Dara’i and Qusay Al Rubaie.

Meanwhile, in the individual event of cycling, Mohammed Al Fadhili and Ahmed Al Ajmi, finished seventh and eighth respectively. The gold was won by Saudi Arabia’s Hussein Jaafar.

Elsewhere, the national handball team failed to clinch a medal as they lost to Bahrain 24-31 in a bronze medal playoff on Friday at Al Bataeh Club Hall in Sharjah.

The handball team had earlier recorded two victories in the tournament as they beat UAE and Qatar.

In the golf event, Oman boys were on the verge of securing a medal as they were placed overall second in the team leaderboard. UAE leads the table with Saudi Arabia third in the five-team event.

Also on Saturday, the billiards competition began but there were defeats for Omani players. Omar Al Hamidi lost both the games while Al Zubair Al Balushi also suffered defeats in both the rounds he played.