Hosts emerged victorious at the youth games with nine golds, totalling 18 medals.

Qatar’s junior contingent put on an impressive display at the 18th Gulf Youth Athletics Championship, which ended Tuesday. Team Qatar topped the medal tally with nine golds over three days in Doha’s Suheim bin Hamad Stadium.

Four of those gold medals came on Tuesday as Al Annabi edged Saudi Arabia’s tally of eight first-place finishes to end up at the top of the table on Tuesday. That took Qatar’s total to 18 medals, with four silver and five bronze.

Hatem Hameed won gold while Mubarak Saeed finished second to complete a one-two for the Qataris in the 1500m event.

The 4x400m relay side secured another gold as Ahmed Haroon impressed with a first-place finish in the 200m on the final day. Haroon clocked his personal best timing of 21.32 seconds en route to glory.

The fourth gold of the day came in the 200m shot put event, courtesy of Saleh Mahmoud’s effort.

Two other medals came in the 400m hurdles event as Faisal Abdullah and Idris Abdel Razzaq finished second and third on the podium.

It was a continuation of the momentum that the hosting nation had picked up on the opening day of the event, when Team Qatar clinched five medals.

Salah Younis had set the tone, clocking his personal best to win gold, while pole vaulter Ibrahim Zakaria and 800 m runner Hameed had also clinched golds in the opener.

The second day saw Hamad Al-Sultan and Mohamed Jomi Mohamed complete a one-two in discus throw to keep the momentum ticking for Al Annabi. Youssef Djabrin brought home the 400m gold as Samer Moussa clocked a personal best to win bronze in the same event.

The biennial tournament included Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE.

Kuwait finished third with three golds, meanwhile Oman and UAE did not secure any gold wins.