Record-setter Ogunode is fastest man in Asia

Qatar’s Femi Ogunode posing with the timer showing his new Asian and games record of 9.93 secconds after winning the final of the men’s 100m athletics event during the 17th Asian Games at the Incheon Asiad Games Main Stadium yesterday.

By Anil John/Incheon, South Korea

Femi Ogunode etched his name in the annals of athletics with an emphatic victory in the prestigious 100m to give Qatar their fifth gold medal at the Asian Games yesterday.

His time of 9.93 seconds helped him finish ahead of China’s Su Bingtian and Japan’s Kei Takase who bagged the silver and bronze by clocking 10.10 and 10.15 seconds respectively.

Rarely do sportsmen get to stake claim for legendary status on the basis of a day’s work, but Ogunode found himself exactly in that position as he not clocked the fastest time ever recorded by an athlete representing an Asian country but also smashed two records along the way.

Ogunode beat the continental record of 9.99 seconds set by fellow Qatari Samuel Francis in 2007 at the Asian Athletics Championships and also the Asian Games mark of 10 seconds held by Japanese sprint legend Koji Ito since the Bangkok Games in 1998.

Francis, who also ran the 100m in Incheon yesterday, finished last in a time of 10.41 seconds and by all accounts may have participated in his final Asian Games.

The last time a Qatari had won the Asian Games gold was at the Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994 when Talal Mansour achieved the feat. Mansour, Qatar’s first true sporting legend by a long margin, had also won the 100m at the Asian Games in 1986 and 1990.

With Qatar having claimed the equestrian team jumping title earlier in the day, Ogunode’s effort lifted the country to eighth on the medals table with a total of five gold and one bronze.

Earlier in the semi-finals, he had improved his personal best time to 10.02 seconds to give a fair indication of things to come.

Unfortunately, there were hardly any spectators at the Asian Games Main Stadium when Ogunode scorched the track in the final because of a persistent heavy downpour throughout the evening.

But Ogunode was not complaining as he promised more glory for himself and Qatar in the future.

“I was confident about breaking the Asian record here. I was building up to the event nicely and had clocked a couple of personal bests in the past few weeks,” said Ogunode, who served a two-year ban after testing positive for clenbuterol. He returned to action in January this year.  Although Ogunode gave up the defence of his 400m gold won at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, he promised more medals for Qatar in Incheon.

“I am also running the 200m and the 4x100m relay and I promise I’ll win more gold medals. There’s still a lot of competition left at the Asian Games.”

Never short of confidence, he even sent out a warning to his sprint rivals. “Watch out for me at the 2015 World Championships and the Olympic Games in 2016,” he said.

Qatar Athletics Federation president Dahlan al-Hamad was thrilled with Ogunode’s show after Mohamed al-Garni had won the 5,000m gold on Saturday.

“What can I say”? I couldn’t be happier,” said al-Hamad. “By all accounts it is a historic day for Qatar. The fastest man in Asia is from Qatar,” he beamed.

“Our success shows we have a proper system in place with the best of facilities. But we will not be resting on our laurels because we have many more important events coming up like the World Championships and the Olympics.”

With a few more medals likely to come in the final six days of the 17th Asiad, Qatar could well improve their tally further and may well be on course to equal or beat their hitherto best haul of nine gold medals won at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.

Today, Qatar will be banking high jump ace Mutaz Barshim to win another gold at the Asian Games.

Barshim, the defending Asian Games champion, is considered the first real challenger to Cuban Javier Sotomayor’s 20-year-old high jump record of 2.45m, and the 23-year-old is not sparing any effort towards that end.

“My goal is eventually to break Sotomayor’s record. I don’t know when that would happen but I’d be certainly trying for that in Incheon,” Barshim had said earlier.

“It will be a huge success for the entire Asian continent if that happens in Incheon