AL NAJJAR BRONZE TAKES JORDAN HAUL TO 11 MEDALS

Jordan added another medal to its record Asian Games tally on Monday when Bashar Al Najjar won bronze in the Karate -75kg division.

Al Najjar, 26, cruised through to the quarter-finals with a victory over Dastonbek Otabolaev, from Uzbekistan, but he was stunned, 3-1, by eventual silver medallist Raef Al Turkistani, of Saudi Arabia, to drop into the repechage process of trying to win bronze.

He regrouped to beat Ka Wai Lee, of Hong Kong, 8-0, before overcoming Pakistan’s Abbas Ghulam in the bronze medal fight.

Mahmoud Sajan narrowly missed out on another Karate medal in the -85kg weight after losing 3-2 to Iran’s Zabiollah Poorshab in the bronze medal match.

There was also disappointment for the Boxing team with Olympian Obada Al Kesbeh missing out on a -64kg quarter-final spot after losing to World Championships silver medallist, Ikboljon Kholdarov, of Uzbekistan.

Monday’s bronze takes Jordan’s tally to 11 medals, including five in Ju-Jitsu, four in Taekwondo and two in Karate.