Al Najjar bronze takes Jordan haul to 11 medals

AMMAN — Jordan added another medal to its record Asian Games tally on Monday when Bashar Al Najjar won bronze in the karate -75kg division, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

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.