10th May, Manama: Top qualifier, Naif Oqab of United Arab Emirates easily defeated challenger, Mustafa Almousawi of Kuwait, 482-382 in a two-game total to capture the Masters title of the 3rd Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Bowling Tournament on Saturday evening.

The left-handed Oqab never gave his opponent much of a chance as he romped home with 257-201 in the first match and 225-181 in the second match for a convincing victory. The Emirati had earlier thrashed Jassim Almuraikhi of Qatar, 278-226 in the first semi-final match to advance to the final.

Almousawi also had an easy victory over Bahraini youth, Rashid Aldalhan, 203-179 in the other semi to face Oqab in the final. The champion pocketed the top prize of 7,500 Bahraini dinar (approx. US$19,500). Almousawi settled for 3,500 BD as first runner-up.

In the third and fourth place playoff for the losing semi-finalists, Almuraikhi defeated Aldalhan, 203-148 to finish as second runner-up and took home 2,000 BD while Aldalhan earned 1,200 DB as third runner-up.

Dr. Abdulrahman Askar, CEO of the General Sports Authority, Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, President of Bahrain Volleyball Association were on hand to give away the prizes accompanied by Mr. Saleh Albufalah, President of Bahrain Bowling Federation.

In the earlier Round 4 finals, Oqab topped Group A with 9 points after winning all his three matches. Almousawi finished second with 6 points from two wins. Aldalhan topped Group B with 9 points from three wins while Almuraikhi finished second with 6 points from two wins.

Yousif Falah of Bahrain, who finished third in Group A with 3 points ended up in fifth position. Hafiz Zainuddin of Malaysia, who finished third in Group B took sixth position while Ivan Tse of Hong Kong and Hassan Qasem of Kuwait finished seventh and eighth position respectively.

123 athletes from 14th countries participated in this tournament which required two best 5-games qualifying scores to make the finals from position 1 to 32 and two additional qualifiers from the one-game Desperado squad. The tournament commenced April 29 through to May 10 at Funland Bowl.