Qatar’s Musaab Abdelrahman Bala showed that he had enough air in his lungs to beat a strong field of athletes for gold with a personal best time of 1:45.92 in the men’s 800m at the Arab Games here at the Khalifa Stadium yesterday.
The silver went to Ismail Ismail of Sudan, who clocked 1:46.60, while the bronze was bagged by Adnan al-Mntafage 1:47.18.
“This event was really hard and I didn’t expect to win. I had surgery this year and I only started training four months ago. It means so much to win because we are in Doha. I think I won because of the support of the crowd and all the people here, and especially because of my coach. I want to offer this medal to the Qatari people,” said a pleased Bala, whose performance has assured him of a London Olympics berth.
“I am very happy with the time I ran because it means I made it to the Olympics in London. I like to now switch my focus towards it,” added Bala.
Later Rashid Shafi al-Dosari bought all his experience in to play to provide the hosts their fifth gold in athletics with an effort of 62.29 in the discus throw final.
This performance was also al-Dosari’s season’s best. The sliver was bagged by Yasser Farag (60.47) of Egypt, while the bronze went to Musab Momani (58.95) of Jordan.
“The competition was very hard, especially with the Egyptian and Iraqi competitors but I made it despite that. I’m extremely pleased with the showing,” said a jubilant al-Dosari.
“I didn’t expect to win but I wanted to. I prepared well since a long time. I think I made a lot of other people happy too. It means so much for me, especially that it is here.
“I am one of the oldest athletes around. I have been competing for 19 years but only three times in Qatar. I was a silver medallist at the Arab Games in 1997 when I was 16, and now I have the gold,” recalled al-Dosari.
The Qatari is now keen to make his presence felt at the London Olympics which could be his last at the Games. “I was 10th last time in Beijing and I will try to improve on that performance this time round. So far I’m 60cm short of the qualifying distance,” said al-Dosari.
However, there was disappointment for the hosts in the men’s basketball event as they went down to Jordan 71-77 in the group ‘D’ second round.
Qatar coach Khalaf Qusay attributed the loss to poor tactics.
“The bad decisions cost us. When you have two teams at the same level, the difference is the good decisions versus the bad decisions. We made some bad decisions and we threw the ball away. Small things win or lose a game,” said an upset looking Qusay.
“I thought the end of the third quarter was the turning point. We should have had 10 points (a 10-point lead). We made bad decisions,” added Qusay, whose team face a must-win situation against Algeria for a place in the medals round. “There is pressure on us but no problem because I like pressure. It will be an exiting contest and hopefully we will come up triumphs,” added Qusay.
Jordan coach Thomas Baldwin was of the view that his wards soaked up the pressure well and that helped them to seal the victory. “When there was pressure, the guys respond. I would like them to be more consistent but every coach is asking his team for perfection. I’m happy with my teams’ showing so far,” said Baldwin.
Qatar also bagged four bronze medals yesterday - three in taekwondo and one wrestling.
Hadeel Fawzy bagged bronze in the women’s Under 57kg, while Said Salih and Abdelqader al-Adhmi clinched the third place in men’s 68kg and 87kg category, respectively. Another bronze for Qatar was provided by Omar A. Mohamed Abdulqader in men’s greco-roman 60 kg wrestling.
Egypt continue to lead the medals tally with 60 gold, 52 silver and 32 bronze. Hosts Qatar maintain their strong hold on the second spot with 27 gold, 23 silver and 26 bronze, while Tunisia with 24 gold, 14 silver and 21 bronze are third.
