Our national athletics team wrote the opening lines of its success at the sixth Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, held in China with the participation of countries from across the continent, managing to win four medals yesterday on the first day of the championships – two gold and two silver – at the event being held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Qatar’s champions were able to top the medal table from the first day with two gold and two silver medals after the resurgent Samuel Francis, holder of the title of fastest man in Asia four years ago, and the already World Championship-qualified Francis succeeded in winning the gold medal in the 60m following strong competition from his teammate Femi Ogunode, who won the silver medal in the same race. Francis completed the race in 6.61 seconds, while Qatar’s champion, returning from a long break, finished second, taking the silver medal by a fraction of a second behind his teammate Samuel, with Femi clocking 6.62 seconds, and Iranian runner Reza Ghasemi took third with the bronze medal in 6.68 seconds.
This race saw Qatar’s champion Femi suffer an injury after crossing the finish line, which worried the coach and delegation somewhat, even though he completed the race, but the team doctor reassured the Qatar delegation that the injury would not prevent him from competing at the World Indoor Championships in Poland next March, especially as the athlete had deservedly qualified for the world challenge in Poland.
Presented by the president of the Asian Athletics Association
The Qatar delegation was filled with great joy at this double success in the first finals of the Asian challenge, and Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, president of the Asian and Qatar athletics federations, presented the medals to the three champions in a wonderful scene, especially as the race had been strong and had seen exciting competition in its heats before the final, which caught fire in the final against Iran’s Ghasemi, the leading contender given his rising form over the past two years.
Gold and silver: the hallmark of Qatar’s brilliance
In the 1500m, Qatar’s athletics continued to shine at the championships, as the promising champion Mohammed Al Garni added a gold medal after fierce competition with the continent’s champions in a race that announced the return to form of Qatar’s promising champion Hamza Driouch. Our champion Al Garni won gold, clocking 3:48.79, while Hamza Driouch finished second with the silver medal in 3:49.55, and Kuwait’s Omar Al Rashidi took third with the bronze medal in 3:50.79.
