12th May, Doha: Abdulrahman Alkheliwi of Saudi Arabia struck the first gold medal of the 4th GCC Games Bowling Championship 2026 with victory in the Singles event while Bader Alsada and Talal Almarri took the silver and bronze medal for host, Qatar.

The Saudis got off to a great start with Alkheliwi rolling a brilliant 237 in his opening game to lead team-mate, Ahmed Abualreesh in second by 13 pins. Almarri did well to take up third spot with 220. Almarri added a sizzling 256 in the second game to take over the lead.

Abdulrzzaq Mohammad of Kuwait shot 244 to add to his 197 opener to move up into second spot. The Qatari kept his lead after a third game of 192. His compatriot, Bader Alsada shot two decent games of 205 and 216 to trail Almarri by 32 pins.

Mohammad, who stumbled to a lowly 181 in the third game, bounced back with a splendid 243 to become the new leader after the fourth game. Almarri shot a poor 179 to slip behind the Kuwaiti. A third Qatari, Jassim Almuraikhi moved up to third.

A big game of 257 from Alkheliwi allowed the 27-year-old Saudi to regain the lead. Alsada downed a scintillating 268 to move up to second and trailed the leader by just seven pins. Alkheliwi ended with 204 to seal the gold medal with 1295.

Alsada remained in second to earn the silver medal with 1275 while Almarri ended the strongest with 221 to clinch the bronze medal with 1260. Almuraikhi missed the podium after finishing fourth with 1252 while Ahmad Aldarwish of Qatar rounded out the top five with 1228.

Mr Abdullah Al-Qatan, President of Qatar Bowling Federation presented the medals and mascots to the top three medalists. Competition will resume with the Doubles event tomorrow at 4.00pm local time. The Trios and Team of 5 events will be contested on May 14, 15 and 16.

The top 12 with the highest total pinfalls in the All Events standings (after 24 games) will advance to the Round-Robin Masters finals, to be contested over two blocks of 6 games each on May 17. The top three in the Masters finals will proceed to the Stepladder Shootout finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha, Qatar.