Qatar’s Saife Saifeldin celebrates his win in the Boys’ 1500 metres final of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Gifu, Japan yesterday.
Gifu, Japan: Middle distance runner Saife Saifeldin and shot putter Moaaz Ibrahim won gold medals for Qatar during the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship at Nagaragawa Stadium in Gifu, Japan yesterday.
Saifeldin cruised to victory in the boys’ 1,500 metres final, clocking a time of 3:49.30 as home favourite Reito Hanzawa finished second with a time of 3:49.66. Iraq’s Hussein Lafta completed the top three with a time of 3:49.75 in the afternoon session of the second day of the competition. Saifeldin made it to yesterday’s final after easily outplaying all his opponents in the heats on the opening day of the Championship, clocking a time of 3:38.99.
In the boys’ shot put final, Ibrahim won Qatar’s second medal of the day when he cleared a distance of 18.57 metres. It was also a new personal best for the Qatari youngster.
South Korea’s Jinseong Yeo made 18.25 metres to secure the silver medal while India’s Ashish Bhalothia, with a personal best of 18.22 metres, completed the podium.
Today, Saifeldin will be looking to add another medal to his name when he competes in the 3000 metres steeple chase final at the Nagaragawa Stadium.
There will be high hopes for another medal or two for Qatar in the 110 metres hurdles final in which Saoud Abdulaziz Al Humaidi and Owaab Barrow will take part. The duo is also expected to be part of the Qatari team in the boys 4x100 meters final later on.
Awad Bassem Mohamed will compete in the first round of boys 400 metres hurdles in the morning session.
Salim Mohamed and Jaber Hilal Al Mmamri will take part in the boys 200 metres heats.
