After five consecutive days of mining gold, Qatar had a relatively sedate Tuesday with Ahmed Dheeb claiming the discus throw bronze at the Asian Games yesterday.

Dheeb, a 148-kilo giant, thus somewhat made amends for his failure at the Guangzhou Asian Games four years ago where he was disqualified from the competition.

“I tried my best to get the gold but the competition was very tough,” said the 29-year-old who had a best throw of 61.25 metres in his sixth and last attempt. It was the best effort of his career so far.

“But a bronze is not a bad effort at all and I am happy that I have contributed to the team’s cause,” he added.

Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi was a clear winner, taking the gold with a haul of 65.11m, while India’s Vikas Gowda claimed silver with 62.58m.

Hadadi, of course, has little competition in the continent as he claimed his third consecutive Asian Games gold yesterday after successes in Doha (2006) and Guangzhou (2010).

The Iranian had also won the silver medal at the London Olympics two years ago.

“Thanks to God, I could successfully defend my title in Incheon,” Hadadi said, his best throw coming on his second attempt. “I was in good physical and mental shape for the event and was confident throughout that I would be able to defend my gold.”

Qatar’s Rashid al-Dosari could only manage a best of 56.79 and finished seventh among 14 competitors.

Al-Dosari had won the silver medal at the Doha Asian Games.

Qatar, who slipped to ninth from seventh position yesterday because no gold medal came their way, however can hope to make amends today when the 200m final is held.

Femi Ogunode, who has already claimed the 100m title and along with it the bragging rights for four years as the fastest man in Asia, won his 200m heat yesterday in a time of 20.85 seconds to qualify for today’s semi-finals, with the final scheduled for the evening.

However, his time was only the fourth fastest among all those who qualified for the semi-finals, with China’s Xie Zhengye topping the list
with 20.74 seconds, followed by Japan’s Hara Shota with 20.76 and China’s Zhang Piemeng with 20.77.

Ogunode had promised after winning the 100m gold that he would also claim the 200m title, even issuing a warning that he would be a serious threat to his rivals at the World Championships in China in 2015 and at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro the following year.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s riders failed to make an impression in the individual jumping competition after winning the men’s team gold, while their skeet shooters, including Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah, failed to make the final.

Today, apart from athletics, Qatar take on China in the quarter-finals of the volleyball tournament, while the handball team will clash with hosts South Korea tomorrow for the gold medal.