KUWAIT CITY, May 30: The Third Gulf Games, hosted by Kuwait under an Amiri sponsorship, is due to conclude on Tuesday, after having witnessed participation of more than 1,700 male and females athletes competing in 23 individual and group categories. The closing ceremony of the 16-day tournament will witness distribution of trophies to winners in competitions of the Karate, fencing, tennis and handball. So far, the Kuwaiti athletes have taken the lion’s share of the trophies, bagging up to 84 medals including 31 gold medals, 23 silver ones and 30 bronze medals. Bahrain came second with 20 gold, 21 silver and 16 bronze. The UAE ranked third with 18 gold, 15 silver and 11 bronze, followed by Qatar with 14 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze. Oman ranked fifth with 12 gold, five silver and 12 bronze followed by Saudi Arabia with 11 gold, 19 silver and 26 bronze.

Ali Al-Meri, the assistant secretary of the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee, said in a statement to KUNA that the tournament involved top athletes from the GCC countries and drew a large number of spectators. All the participating GCC teams made good records in these games, he affirmed, revealing that the executive bureau of the GCC Olympic committees has recently decided to hold more sports games throughout the coming four years. He lauded participation of the women athletes for the first time in these games, including competitions in swimming, track and field, handball, volleyball, basketball, shooting, karate, judo, fencing, tennis, cycling, ice hockey, tennis table, paddle and electronic games, (KUNA)