Sports
Haroun, al-Garni win two golds for hosts
Haroun, al-Garni win two golds for hosts
February 20, 2016 | 11:34 PM
The opening day of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships was all about Mutaz Essa Barshim, one of the most popular and known sporting icons in the country. His high-jump win was a foregone conclusion; the sole suspense was if he could better his best of 2.41m. He didn’t go for it, staying satisfied at 2.35 to take his fourth successive Asian Indoor title.Day 2 at the Aspire Dome was about two talented but lesser-known Qatari athletes: Mohamed al-Garni and Abdalelah Haroun. The former is a middle distance runner specialising in 1,500m, while the 19-year-old Haroun has been making waves in recent months in his pet 400m event. Both lived up to their billing yesterday.Al-Garni successfully defended his 1,500m title with a competition record 3:36.35, the third-fastest in the world this season. In fact, the 23-year-old missed the Asian record by a whisker, just 0.07 seconds, and he had no one to blame but himself.Once he broke from the four-man pack some 100m from the finish, he started pounding his chest and motioning to the wildly cheering crowd as he breezed down the home straight, in the process losing precious seconds which cost him the record. And he admitted it too: “I could have run faster but I was overwhelmed by the crowd’s support and wasted time celebrating on the final straight. It’s such a fantastic feeling to win at home.”Al-Garni, who will also be running the 3,000m today, added that he isn’t certain about going to next month’s World Indoors in Portland. “I haven’t decided yet, but I would like to focus more on training for Rio (Olympic Games),” he added.The silver went to Benson Seurei of Bahrain (3:37.08), who did most of the early pacing, with Qatari Said Aden Said’s late charge helping him to bronze (3:37:29).It was Qatar’s Haroun all the way in 400m, as he raced to victory in 45.88, another championships mark. “I gave all I had left in the tank, but I certainly can go faster,” said Haroun, whose performance was the sixth fastest of the season. “My target here was to win the race, nothing more. Next stop for me is Portland.”Bahraini Abubaker Abbas took the silver in 46.60, with Mikhail Litvin of Kazakhstan (46.80) winning the bronze.As expected, Oluwakemi Adekoya dominated the women’s 400m as the 23-year-old Bahraini notched her second Asian record in as many days--her 51.67 performance knocking another 0.01s from the continental record she set in qualifying yesterday.Meanwhile, Betlhem Desalegn became the event’s first double winner after her resounding 3,000m triumph. The 24-year-old broke away from Ruth Jebet of Bahrain and her United Arab Emirates teammate Alia Mohamed Saeed with 80 metres remaining en route to a 8:44.59 run, the fourth fastest time of the year.“I needed to push hard, to meet the qualification standard for Portland,” said Desalegn, who’s been troubled by Achilles-related injuries over the past three seasons.Jebet clocked 8:47.24 to finish second with Saeed (8:48.62) taking the bronze.It was China all the way in pole-vault again. Following Li Ling’s lead from the opening night, Huang Bokai secured another pole vault title for his country–and for their French coach Damien Inocencio — with a 5.75m championships record vault, yet another career best for the 19-year-old.Bokai secured the win after topping 5.70m on his second attempt before sailing clear at 5.75m with his first. He later bowed out with three tries at a would-be 5.82m national record.Japanese Seito Yamomoto and Hiroki Ogita topped 5.60m and 5.50m respectively to finish second and third.The Kazakh reign continued in triple jump as Olympic champion Olga Rypakova took the gold with a modest 14.32m leap. Mayookha Johny of India, the winner of the long jump on the opening night, finished second with a 14.00m leap to take her second medal of the event.The men’s side saw Roman Valiyev take top honours at 16.69m, well ahead of second-placed Renjith Maheswary (16.16m) of India.Elsewhere, Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Voronina was confirmed the winner of Friday’s women’s pentathlon with 4224 points. Iran’s Sepideh Hossein (3828) and Japan’s Chie Kiriyama (3,637) finished second and third respectively.A protest filed by Iranian officials, against India’s Swapna Barman for a lane infringement in the 800m, was upheld. Barman initially finished second behind Voronina.
February 20, 2016 | 11:34 PM