Abderrahman Samba powered Qatar to the final of the 4x400m relay with the fastest qualifying time to raise hopes of another gold medal for the country at the Asian Games.
Samba, who had won the 400m hurdles gold a few days ago, ran a blistering first leg of heat two yesterday to give Qatar at least a 10-metre advantage with 1,200 metres to go.
Mohamed Abbas, Abdalelah Haroun and Mohamed Mohamed then made sure that there were no scares as Qatar easily won the heat in 3mins06.08secs ahead of Bahrain and Sri Lanka.
Bahrain clocked 3:06.29 and Sri Lanka 3:06.66, but Japan who topped heat one a few minutes earlier, recorded the second-fastest time of 3:06.11.
Bahrain were third in the overall qualification, with India, China, Chinese Taipei, Pakistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka also making it to today’s final.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Hamza Driouch also qualified for the 1,500m final, although his time of 3:47.18 was only the fourth-best overall. Musaab Ali qualified for the final too with the 12th best time in qualification — 3:50.90.
Mohamed Tiouali topped the timesheets with 3:46.40 followed by India’s Jinson Johnson with 3:46.50 and Iran’s Amir Moradi with 3:46.93.
Qatar fielded a quartet of teenagers in the 4x100m relay only to miss out on the final by finishing last among 14 countries.
Japan clocked 38.20 seconds, while China with 38.88 and Indonesia with 39.03 were second and third, respectively. Qatar’s time was 41.03, a full two seconds behind third-placed Indonesia.
In the triple jump, Qatar’s Rashid al-Mannai finished 15th.
Meanwhile, India’s Dutee Chand scooped her second silver of the Asian Games, four years after she was dropped from the team due to her high testosterone levels – but said she lives in fear she could be made to “suffer” again.
Chand has hyperandrogenism, the condition that also affects South African middle distance star and Olympic champion Caster Semenya.
The Indian athlete won a court battle for her right to compete with her hormonal imbalance, and has achieved silvers in Jakarta in both the 100m and 200m – only the second Indian woman ever to do so, after sprint queen P T Usha.
“I suffered a lot. Nobody could have suffered so much,” said Chand.
“But I came back to give two medals to India. It will be a big celebration back home.”
Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong took the gold with 22.96, ahead of Chand who had led until late but finished on 23.20.
Chand was dropped from the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in 2014 after hormone testing.
Hyperandrogenism, the medical condition which causes women to produce high levels of male sex hormones, is controversial because it pits principles of fair competition against the rights of women born with the condition.
New rules say women racing between 400m and one mile can only compete if they take medication to reduce their testosterone levels – but short-distance sprinters like Chand were spared.
“My legal team helped me to come back,” said Chand. “But nobody could guarantee what will happen in the future. Caster Semenya is still fighting.
“There is always fear but you need to overcome it.”
In the men’s 200m Japan’s Yuki Koike won a dramatic race in a photo-finish with Taiwan’s Yang Chunhan.
The young Japanese athlete, expected to be in the shadow of Rio silver relay medallist and compatriot Shota Iizuka, finished strongly and took the gold with a well-timed lean, as Yang stumbled in his attempt to cling to his lead. 
Both recorded times of 20.23 while Iizuka finished sixth.
“Iizuka has so much experience of competing at 200 metres and has had so many great results,” said Koike, 23. “I just want to achieve what he has done.”
Earlier, China carried forward its Rio 2016 success to win both golds in the 20km walks.
Wang Kaihau won a tight men’s race, finally pulling ahead of Japan’s Toshikazulate Yamanishi late on to win by six seconds.
In the women’s event, China’s Yang Jiayu and Qieyang Shijie stormed nearly five minutes clear of the pack for gold and silver at a joint Games record of 1:29:15 – China’s fifth consecutive win in the event.
India had three competitors across the two finals disqualified for illegally losing contact with the floor.