Qatar’s former double World U20 champion Ashraf El-Seify fired the warning shot in the men’s hammer-throw qualifying with a season’s best effort of 74.92m at the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships at Khalifa International Stadium yesterday.
With the qualifying mark set at 70m, Tajik Olympic champion Dilshod Nazarov didn’t bother with his second or the third attempt, crossing the mark with a 71.46m on his first attempt.
While El-Seify fired 69m+ marks on the first two attempts, his third was the top throw of the day, setting a fun contest between the two, considering the only time Nazarov has lost at a continental level was when he finished second to the Qatari at the 2018 Asian Games.

Qatar’s Ahmed El-Sify too made it to today’s final round after with his second attempt was his season’s best 65.54m.
Earlier in the day, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode locked his spot in the men’s 200m final with a win in the third semi-final heat yesterday, but left the track feeling his left hamstring.
The 27-year-old, who holds the Asian record in both the 100m and the 200m, ran the third fastest time of the day in the discipline at 20.63 seconds, while the top two in the first semi-final heat, China’s Zhenye Xie and 2018 Asian Games winner Yuki Koike of Japan posted the two fastest times at 20.35 and 20.60 respectively.
“It didn’t go well. My left hamstring hurts. I am not sure I will be able to compete in the final,” Ogunode, who was the only athlete in the semifinal startlist to have ever dipped under 20 seconds, said after the run.
Today’s men’s 1,500m final will see two local heroes Muhand Khamis Saifeldin and Musaab Ali lining up for a shot at gold.
With Bahrain’s Mohamed Ayoub Tiouali setting the mark in the second heat at 3:49.14, Saifeldin (3:49.24) finished third behind India’s Ajay Kumar Saroj (3:49.20) for a spot in the final, while Ali made it through with a time of 3:49.57.