After a fierce contest, Qatari runner Femi Ogunode had the final word, snatching the 400m gold medal with a time of (45.12 s) from his Japanese rival Yuzo Kanemaru, who recorded a time of (45.32 s) to take the silver medal, while the bronze went to Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Al Masrahi (45.71 ) s, and with this Femi secured Qatar’s first gold medal at the 16th Asian Games currently being held in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and with this Qatar’s tally in the athletics championship after the second day of the championship stood at one gold medal, one silver for Kwalia, and one bronze for Felix in the 5000m, and among the second day’s results Qatar’s Samuel Francis was disqualified from the 100m for committing a false start in the semi-final, after having been a strong contender for the event’s gold, given that his time in this season’s championships is better than the time of the Chinese athlete who won the gold medal with a time of 10.24 seconds, and Francis also holds the Asian record in this event, which is ( 9.99) seconds.
Tomorrow our Qatari athletes will compete in the high jump at twelve noon and the 3000m steeplechase at two in the afternoon, and Qatar is expected to win the gold medal in the high jump, with Qatari jumpers Mutaz Essa, the 2010 world junior champion with a personal best of 2.31 m, and jumper Rashed Al Manai, the Continental Cup champion with a personal best of 2 .29 m, both taking part, while Zakaria Kamal and Thamer Ali Kamal will also take part in the 3000m steeplechase and are expected to challenge for medals.
