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Agencies
DOHA
Hamad Ali al Attiyah of Qatar had to settle for the Equestrian Jumping Team Event silver medal at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Thursday.
A keen battle for the gold medal took place between Saudi Arabia's 2012 Olympic team bronze medallist Abdullah Waleed al Sharbatly and Attiyah. The Saudi rider knew that he could not afford even a single fence down or Qatar would have stolen his thunder.
However, Attiyah, who was astride Clinton, suffered a time penalty of one point which denied him a gold medal. Sharbatly and his horse, Woulon L, never looked like faltering and he punched the air in celebration. The Syrian Arab Republic, with four faults, took bronze.
Attiyah commented after the podium ceremony,"Thank God for the silver medal, we are happy. The team could have done better, but that's sport. One day you have it, other day you don't.
"At least we ended up on the podium so I am very happy about that. In our sport, you always have a chance until the last jump."
On losing by only one time point, he said,"It couldn't have been closer. But we have a new team here and it's the first time we jumped as a team. The boys gave their best and did really good for a first time. Hopefully we will do better next time."
Sharbatly was excited after his victory. He said,"Winning the gold medal is a fantastic feeling. On the borrowed horses, I almost won the Akhal Teke competition I almost won, coming second, so I have got a gold and silver today. Fantastic."
But after Khaled Abdulrahman al Mobty (KSA) and Khaled Abdulaziz al Eid (KSA) had gone clear in the second round, Ajmi (KSA) incurred 16 penalties after hitting four fences.
With Qatar having three faultless rounds to register, al Sharbatly revelled under pressure.
Seven riders produced two clear rounds that will be taken into the final two of the Individual event on Saturday.
Sharbatly earlier also took a silver in the competition restricted to Akhal Teke horses, the ancient native breed of Turkmenistan. Fittingly, it was won by local rider Nikolay Beglaryan (TKM).
"It is a very proud moment for me," said Beglaryan."I wanted to win the gold medal. The Akhal Teke horse is so special to Turkmenistan."
Meanwhile, Marshall Islands also took a superb silver medal on Thursday in weightlifting as Mathlynn Sasser finished second in the under-63 kilograms event.
China's Yuan Wangjian cruised to the gold medals after six successful lifts to finish with an unrivalled total of 223kg at the Weightlifting Arena.
Sasser finished next best thanks to a hoist of 120kg in the clean and jerk that earned her an Oceania record.
She lifted a total of 210kg, while South Korea's An Sisung took the bronze medal with 208kg.
Turkmenistan's Rejepba'fd Rejepow came out on top in the under-77kg category with a total of 353kg in front of the watching Olympic Council of Asia President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
Rejepow won the snatch with 162kg and the clean and jerk with 191kg.
Uzbekistan's Shakhzod Khudayberganov was the runner-up in the snatch with 155kg and the clean and jerk with 187kg for a silver medal-winning total of 342kg.
Rounding out the podium was Iraq's Ahmed Al-Hussein, who took the bronze medal with a total of 323kg after finishing third in the snatch with 146kg and the clean and jerk with 177kg.
International Weightlifting Federation President Tam'e1s Aj'e1n joined Sheikh Ahmad to present the medals.
