15th May, Doha: Saudi Arabia is poised for their third gold medal of the 4th GCC Games Bowling Championship 2026 after leading the Team of 5 first block 52 pins ahead of arch rival, Qatar in second and United Arab Emirates in third.

Abdulrahman Alkheliwi, Ziyad Altuwaireb, Abdulmajeed Alaslani, Bandar Alyabah and Ahmed Abualreesh got of the block with a cracking 992 in their opening game for a slender lead of 25 pins. Aseel Alroomi, Abdulrzzaq, Faisal Saleem, Abdulsalam Alsaqer and Mostafa Almousawi of Kuwait trailed in second.

UAE's Ahmed Abdulla Almahri, Hamad Ahmad Ahli, Sultan Mohammed Alqubaisi, Humaid Ahmed Almaazmi and Obain Ahmed Alsaadi was third with Qatar's Talal Almarri, Ahmad Aldarwish, Abdulrahman Aldoseri, Baser Alsada and Jassim Almuraikhi in fourth.

Saudi Arabia set a blistering pace in the second game with a scorching 1010 to open up a huge gap of 179 pins. Qatar fired a superb 938 to take up second as Kuwait slipped to third with 852. UAE also posted 852 and also dropped down to fourth.

Despite ending the block with 908, Saudi Arabia remained in the lead with 2910. Qatar reduced the gap to 52 pins after they finished the third game on 1035 for a team total of 2858. UAE bounced back with 983 to reclaim third spot with 2775. Kuwait slipped down to fourth with 2767, just eight pins off UAE.

The bowlers will resume with their second block of 3 games tomorrow at 4.00pm local time to determine the medal winners. After 21 games contested, Bader Alsada and Jassim Almuraikhi of Qatar occupied the top two spots in the All Events standings with 4504 and 4337 respectively.

Mostafa Almousawi of Kuwait took third spot with 4335 while Talal Almarri of Qatar was 57 pins off the podium with 4278. The top 12 in the All Events standings will make the cut for the Round-Robin Masters finals of two blocks of 6 games each.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha, Qatar.

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