#Rio2016: Teenage steeplechaser gives Bahrain its first gold medal

Teenager Ruth Jebet won Bahrain its first-ever Olympic gold medal on Monday in the women's 3,000 meters steeplechase and narrowly missing out on setting a new world record.

The 19-year-old Kenyan-born runner came into the lead after a few laps to win in eight minutes 59.75 seconds, narrowly outside of the 8:58.81 world record set by Russia's Gulnara Galkina.

"I admit it was too easy for me but nobody told me about the record. I wanted the gold medal," Jebet told reporters after the race.

Jebet opted to represent Bahrain when she was 16-years-old.

The gold is the first in the sporting history of the small Gulf nation, and their second medal of the Rio Games.

On Sunday, Kenyan-born Bahraini long-distance runner Eunice Kirwa took home the silver medal in the women's marathon.

It was Bahrain's first-ever silver medal and second medal of all time.

The two medals bring the tally of Arab medals at Rio up to nine so far at the Rio Games.

	Tunisia's Ines Boubakri won the bronze [Getty]

Moroccan boxer Mohamed Rabii on Monday won the bronze medal in the men's welterweight event, after losing to Uzbekistan's Giyasov Shakhram.

Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi took second place on Monday in the men's 800m, the runner won the gold medal in the 1,500m event at the London 2012 Olympics.

Last week, Tunisia's Ines Boubakri became the first Tunisian fencer ever to win an Olympic medal.

Images of an overjoyed Boubakri kissing her French husband after she won went viral in the Middle East.

Two Egyptian weightlifters have made their country proud after taking home two bronze medals.

Moldovan-born Sergiu Toma bagged the UAE its second ever Olympic medal and its first in judo, when he took third place.

And Kuwait's Fehaid al-Deehani, competing at the Rio Games as an independent athlete, won the men's double trap gold.