Our national athletics champions continued their positive results on the international stage abroad, and in a new achievement our champion Ashraf Al Saifi finished second in the hammer throw at the Poland athletics championship. Al Saifi recorded a throw of 77.43 m, while Polish giant Pawel Fajdek took first place with a mark of 80.10 m, and Tajikistan’s Dilshod Nazarov finished third with 77.20 m. Al Saifi’s participation comes as part of his intensive preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympics. Ashraf Al Saifi is one of our outstanding champions, having won the World Junior Championships title twice in a row, in 2012 and 2014, and he currently holds the world junior record in the hammer throw with a distance of 85.57 m.
Al Saifi enjoys the full support and backing of the national teams’ administrative and technical staff, alongside high-level coaching from his expert world-class coach Alexei Malyukov, under whom Al Saifi’s talent flourished, quickly achieving a major technical and numerical breakthrough that earned him admiration and appreciation. Malyukov said: “In 2010 the head coach asked me to test Al Saifi, and accordingly I oversaw some of his training sessions. After his first attempt, I was certain he had the potential to become a strong, outstanding athlete. At the time I promised the Federation that Al Saifi would be able to throw the hammer beyond 80 metres, and I wasn’t wrong — Al Saifi went on to throw as far as 85 metres!”
For his part, Khalifa Abdulmalik, director of the national teams, praised champion Al Saifi’s performance at the Poland championship, affirming that he is on the right track within the preparation programme for the Rio 2016 Olympics. He described the Poland throwing championship as an excellent rehearsal for the champion, reflecting his improved level against major champions from the European continent, and wished him success in the challenges ahead.
