The UAE narrowly missed out on adding to their medal tally at the Asian Games yesterday as Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum and the men’s bowling team saw their hopes of bronze ended by small margins.
Sheikha Latifa was beaten by 1.39 seconds with Taizo Sugitani of Japan, clocking 30.95 seconds in the equestrian individual jumping competition to win bronze.
And only four pins was the difference for the men’s bowling team, who were edged out by Hong Kong as they finished joint-fourth with China.
The horse jumping team, also featuring Abdullah Mohammed Al Marri and Mohammed Al Owais made a solid start. However as the competition progressed, only Sheikha Latifa, on her 11-year mare Peanuts De Beaufour, remained in contention for a medal.
Carrying a four-point penalty from her qualifying period on the first day, Sheikha Latifa came agonisingly close with a time of 32.34 but was edged out of the top three by Sugitani.
The event was won by Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Sharbatli, ahead of runner-up Satoshi Hirao.
In bowling, entering the day still in with a chance of sealing a medal, the five-man team, Mahmood Al Attar, Shaker Ali, Hussain Al Suwaidi, Naif Oqab and Hareb Al Mansoori fought hard until the end, but despite their efforts, they could only accumulate 5,896 pins.
South Korea comfortably took gold with a total of 6,228 pins, 242 pins ahead of runners-up Malaysia while Hong Kong’s effort of 5,900 was enough to win bronze.
Meanwhile, the skeet shooting team also ended the shooting competition on a disappointing note as they failed to consolidate their start during the qualifying round.
The three-man team, Saif Al Mansoori, Ahmed Mohammed and Saeed Al Dhraif finished in sixth position with a total of 341 points.
China picked up gold with a new Asian record of 366, while Kuwait (353) placed second ahead of South Korea (351).
Al Mansoori was best among the three UAE shooters with a total of 116 while Mohammed and Al Dhraif followed with totals of 115 and 110 at the end of five qualifying rounds.
And on the field, Saber Bayaha’s 50.05m attempt wasn’t enough to secure qualification to the men’s discus final, which was won by Iran’s Ehsan Hadid (65.11m).
India’s Vikas Gowda (62.58m) and Qatar’s Ahmed Mohammed Dheeb (61.25m) clinched silver and bronze medals respectively on the fourth day of the athletics competition.
Today, in sailing, both the men and women’s Optimist categories conclude, as well as the laser standard.
Tomorrow, 10,000m gold medalist Alia Saeed Mohammed will hope to add to the UAE’s tally when she competes in the women’s 5,000m alongside Betlhem Desalegn.
