Manama, Oct. 17 (BNA) — Muharraq last night made ease work of Al Najma as they kick-started their title bid with a 64-23 victory in the Bahrain Women’s Basketball Championship.
Former men’s national team basketball star and present Muharraq coach Talal Mousa led his side to a perfect start to this five-team competition, organised as part of the first-ever Bahrain Women’s Games.
The team in red jerseys stamped authority on the game as they scored from all over the court for a comfortable win.
Muharraq were in superb form yesterday, thanks to a coherence team work by Layla Mohammed, Abeer Al Khaja, Fatma Mohammed, Maryam Mohammed and Fatma Abdulreda, to name a few.
Others contributing to Muharraq victory were Maryam Khalid, Fatma Adel, Fatma Mohammed, Aysha Salman, Noha Abed and Jameela Mohammed.
Al Najma, coached by Ghada Al Fayhani, were hoping to reduce the deficit and come back to the match later on while relying on Alya Ali, Sara Abdulaziz and Maryam Al Ka’abi.
Also spearheading Al Najma last night were Ruqaya Al Shamma’a, Iman Isa, Amina Al Ghanem, Amani Saleh, Iba’a Mohamed, Maryam Al Hamad, Noor Al Dossary and Fatma Ali.
But there was little that Al Najma can perform in front of a more experienced opponent, who marched on in the fourth and final quarter to secure victory by a 41-point margin.
Today’s action will see first round of matches winners Al Hidd and Manama face off at 7pm. Al Hidd defeated Al Najma 51-31, while Manama trounced Al Ahli 98-15 in their openers.
And after this single round robin stage, four of the five teams will qualify the semi-finals, to be played in knock-out format.
Meanwhile, 18 players are lined up for the bowling championship, which gets underway tomorrow at Bapco Club premises in Awali.
The two-day championship will have competitions in singles, trios and masters.
Participants include Arab champion Noora Sultan, besides Yasmine Akeel, Reem Sultan, Marisel Sultan, Maryam Habib, Fatma Khalid, Noora Janahi, Layla Janahi and Haya Al Kuwati.
The remaining players are Majda Taher, Dana Al Abdulla, Noora Haqiqi, Shamira Shahool, Reem Khalfan, Dalal Al Jamea, Tahani Hussain, Layla Janahi and Naziha Balawi.
There are eight sporting tournaments in total during this first-ever Bahrain Women’s Games. The annual Bahrain Women’s Day is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of Bahraini women in the sporting arena.
Other events organised during the Games are futsal, volleyball, table tennis, shooting, athletics and disabled sports.
The volleyball championship is already underway at Isa Sport City’s Bahrain Volleyball Association’s gym in Riffa with four teams in the fray.
They are the Bahrain girls team, Khawla Secondary School, University of Bahrain the Interior Ministry team.
The Table Tennis Championship will take place from November 1 to 4 at the Bahrain Table Tennis Association in Riffa, followed by the Military Shooting Championship from November 4 to 8 at the Shooting range in Al Raffa.
There are two disabled sports event taking place later on. The one-day Bocce Ball Championship will be held on November 6 at the Bahrain Disabled Sports Federation.
It will be followed by a shooting tournament, also for the disabled, on November 7 and 8 at the National Stadium side grounds in Riffa.
A five-a-side futsal tournament will be held from November 14 to 21 at Khalifa Sports City Gym in Isa Town.
The Games action concludes later on with two athletics events, the first of which is a marathon on November 18 at the Princess Sabeeka Park in Awali.
A two-day open athletics championship will then take place on November 17 and 18 at St. Christopher’s School in Saar.
EM