Our national athletics team won the individual and team gold medals, in addition to the individual bronze, in the cross country race held at the close of the athletics events at the Danang 2016 Asian Beach Games. Our champion Idris Musa took first place and the individual gold medal after completing the race in a time of 19:06.45, Jamal Hairan took third place and the bronze medal in 19:34.21, while second place and the silver medal went to Vietnam’s Son in 19:16.19. Hashem Saleh finished fifth and Musab Adam finished 11th among 21 participants in the race, and our team won the team gold medal, with Vietnam’s team taking silver and Thailand’s team bronze.
HE Major General Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, president of the Qatar and Asian athletics federations and IAAF vice president, expressed his happiness at what our champions achieved at the Asian Beach Games, dedicating the achievement to HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of Qatar, to the president of the Qatar Olympic Committee, and to fans of athletics in Qatar. He said Qatar’s athletics champions were consistently on course for success on the Asian stage and for results that honour Qatari sport, praising the champions for their great effort and their determination to reach the top places, especially given the strong competition from the continent’s champions, and wished for Qatari athletics to continue achieving more successes in all upcoming events, particularly with a busy schedule ahead requiring effective participation.
Ghanem Al Kaabi, the team’s administrator, said there had been expectations of winning medals in the cross country race, and that their ambition had in fact been to sweep all three individual medals, but overall the outcome was satisfying, especially since the team won both the individual and team gold medals. For his part, champion Idris Musa expressed his great happiness at winning the individual and team gold medals, saying: “Thank God for this achievement, which came about first through God’s grace, then the prayers of my parents and the efforts of everyone at the Qatar Athletics Federation’s board, the administrative and technical staff, and the Qatari delegation at the Asian Beach Games.” On the race, he said: “This was the first time I competed in a race on sand, and some of the competitors were older than me, but that was a motivation and a challenge for me, and thank God I was crowned with the gold medal.”
