KONYA,  Turkey - Bassem Hemeida won Qatar’s first gold medal at the Fifth Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey, on Tuesday, with a 48.67sec run in the 400M hurdles.

The Aspire Academy student, who set the track ablaze from the start, finished ahead of Turkey’s Yasmani Copello Escobar (48.86) and Algeria’s Lahoulou Abdelmalik (49.15).

However, there was heartbreak for Qatar’s Tosin Ogunode who was disqualified in the men’s 100M semifinal. A day earlier, the sprinter had dipped below the 10-sec barrier (9.98sec) in the first round.

Meanwhile, the Qatari men’s volleyball team opened their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Iran. After going down meekly (15-25) in the first set, the Al Annabi fought tooth and nail in the next two before going down 24-26, 23-25.

This fifth edition of Islamic Solidarity Games will run from 9th to 18th of  August and  will see  approximately 6000 athletes  from  58 countries.

The Qatar Olympic Committee will have 12 national federations in this year’s edition to compete in  16 sport disciplines, including basketball, volleyball , handball, cycling, athletics, swimming, shooting, Taekwondo,  Judo, Karate, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing and gymnastics.