Qatari athletics continued to shine on the Asian continent, and after the senior national team took first place in Asia indoors last week, the young members of Qatar’s national team went on to win the team bronze medal at the 12th Asian Cross Country Championship in the Japanese city of Fukuoka. The young Qatar team members, competing for the first time at Asian level as a new and promising generation, succeeded in competing with the continent’s leading nations and taking third place in the team standings among all the continent’s federations, in a championship that drew more than forty countries. The Qatar team, made up of Musab Adam, Ibrahim Abdi, Yousef Idris, Mohammed Nour and Mohammed Al Nazir, finished third to claim the bronze medal behind Iran, who took silver, while Japan won first place. Bahrain topped the overall men’s and women’s standings after collecting five medals in total: two gold, one silver and two bronze
In the men’s open 10km race, Bahraini runners swept the top three places, with Oyeike taking first place after finishing the race in a time of 28:52, followed by Isaac in second with a time of 29:10, while Alemu placed third in 29:19, and Zelalem finished fourth in 29:24
An achievement that promises a bright future
Mohammed Sulaiman, head of the delegation of Qatar’s national team in Japan, expressed his happiness at the Asian achievement of the young Qatar team members, saying they were all young athletes the federation was working to prepare to be future champions, and that taking third place confirmed they were on the right track to winning titles, especially since the cross country event saw strong participation from the continent’s big names. Sulaiman congratulated the young Qatar champions and conveyed the delegation’s congratulations to the man steering Qatari athletics, Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, president of the Asian and Qatari federations, on this achievement, affirming that Qatari athletics would achieve even greater distinction in the challenges ahead
