Competition resumes today on the second day of the mother of sports events at the Asian Games, with our national team represented by 28 male and female athletes taking on the elite champions of the Asian continent, as eight finals will be held in track and field events at Incheon Olympic Stadium, as follows: the men’s and women’s 20km race walk finals, the women’s hammer, the women’s 400m, the men’s 400m, and the men’s and women’s 100m finals, noting that the Asian challenge includes, for the men: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, the 4x100m relay, the 4x400m relay, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase, 20km race walk, 50km race walk, the marathon, pole vault, javelin throw, discus throw, hammer throw, shot put, high jump, triple jump, long jump and the decathlon, and for the women: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, the 4x100m relay, the 4x400m relay, 400m hurdles, 20km race walk, 3000m steeplechase, the marathon, hammer throw, javelin throw, discus throw, shot put, pole vault, high jump, triple jump, long jump and the heptathlon, with 47 gold medals to be awarded, 24 for the men and 23 for the women. Asian attention will certainly be on the semi-finals and final of the men’s 100m, for the title of Asia’s fastest man, where our talented sprinter Femi Ogunode and his teammate Francis take on the continent’s sprinters, most notably China’s Ni Mingjiang and Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu. Femi and Francis begin in a high state of readiness after a string of successful international outings, the most recent being Femi’s runner-up finish at the Continental Cup, where he appeared at a high and creditable level against the giants of world sprinting. Femi and Francis qualified for the semi-final with little effort, the former clocking 10.14 seconds and Francis 10.33 seconds, ahead of tonight’s moment of truth. Meanwhile, Japan’s Chisato Fukushima looks well placed to establish herself as the undisputed Asian champion in the 100m and 200m, while Abdulnasser Abbas contests the 400m final and Hamza Driouch and Mohammed Al Garni the 1500m heats,
High jump final
Our Olympic champion Mutaz Essa Barshim will contest the high jump final tomorrow after the technical committee decided to drop the qualifying round from today’s schedule, sparing our champion Barshim an exhausting qualifier that would have served as practice for him. Barshim is at peak readiness and high focus following his Korean training camp to defend his Asian title and produce a performance and level that reflect his technical and skill development in the event, and also confirm that he deserves to remain on the Asian high jump throne
Our champion Al Saifi unlucky in the hammer
Bad luck dogged our young champion Ashraf Al Saifi in the hammer throw final, his first Asian appearance, as Al Saifi failed to land any of his three attempts out of six, while Tajikistan’s Dilshod Nazarov took gold with 76.82m, China’s Zhao Yong took silver with 73.65m and his compatriot Ding Yong took third with 73.43m, while Kuwait’s Ali Al-Zankawi, the Guangzhou 2010 gold medallist, had to settle for fourth with 72.88m
A useful experience for Al Manai
Qatari shot putter Israa Al Manai gained a useful first experience in the Asian challenge, recording her best throw of 10.91m, while China’s Liu Zhong took gold with 19.06m, Iran’s Leila Rajabi took silver with 17.80m and China’s Ju Tanjin took bronze with 17.52m
