Bahrain, China and Saudi Arabia each take two athletic golds (Updated)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Dec 9, 2006, 17:31 GMT

Doha, Qatar - Bahrain, China and Saudi Arabia each won two gold medals in Saturday's athletics competition in Doha at the 15th Asian Games.

Saudi Arabian sprinter Yahya Hassan Habeeb, who won a silver medal over 100 metres in the world junior championships in 2003, won the blue ribband event in 10.32 seconds, beating Japan's Naoki Tsukahara into second place. The bronze went to Wachara Sondee from Thailand.

In the men's long jump, Saudi Arabia took the gold and the bronze, with Hussain Taher Al Saba winning with a jump of 8.02m. Second place went to Kuwaiti athlete Saleh Al Hadad, who jumped a personal best of 7.88m.

Al Saba's team-mate Ahmed Faez Bin Marzouq, who had been the furthest in the qualifying session, won bronze with a leap of 7.85m.

Bahrain's two gold medals came in the 10,000m, where African-born runners finished in the top three positions and from Ethiopian-born Maryam Yusuf Jamal in the women's 800m.

Jamal, who is hoping to win the 1,500m as well, won comfortably in a time of 2:01.79 minutes, edging out Indian Santhi Soundarajan and Viktoriya Yalovtseva from Kazakhstan for second and third place respectively.

Hasan Mahbob took the gold in the 10,000m, while his team-mate Aadam Ismaeel Isa took the bronze. Qatar's Essa Ismail Rashed won the silver after edging past Isa on the finish line.

China, meanwhile, won the women's shot put and the women's marathon. In the shot put Li Ling took the gold from her team-mate Li Meijing. The bronze went to Lin Chia Ying from Taiwan.

Xhou Chunxiu, who took the marathon gold from from two Japanese runners Kiyoko Shimahara and Kayoko Obata, said that she had been satisfied with her run.

'I was in good shape. I have been training very hard for this event and I was confident that I could perform well. I am satisfied, although my time (2:27.03 hours) could have been better,' she said.

There was some joy for Lebanon as Jean Claude Rabbath won the gold in the high jump. Second place went to Sergey Zassimovich from Kazakhstan, while Japan's Naoyuki Daigo took the bronze.

Guzel Khubbieva from Uzbekistan won the women's 100m, finishing ahead of Sri Lanka's Jayasinghe Susanthika and Ruqaya Al Ghasara from Bahrain.

The women's heptathlon event was won by Kazakhstan's Olga Rypakova. Soma Biswas from India took the silver, while her team- mate JJ Shoba was third.