Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba attends a training camp in Valencia.
Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s Asian record holder Abderrahman Samba is undergoing intensive training as he prepares for what promises to be a challenging 2025 athletics season, according to the Qatar Athletics Federation.
Currently attending a training camp in Valencia, the star 400m hurdler is gearing up for several major events later this year. This season’s prestigious competitions include the 2025 Diamond League series, the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea and the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which will feature over 2,000 athletes from 200 countries.
The season-opening Diamond League meeting scheduled for April 26 in Xiamen, China will include the men’s 400m hurdles where Samba is expected to showcase his skills.
Despite the emergence of promising talents such as Bassem Hemeida and Ismail Doudai Abakar, Samba remains a key figure for Qatar in the 400m hurdles.
The 29-year-old, whose career has been marred by injuries, showed glimpses of his former brilliance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, he was unable to match the top competitors finishing sixth in the final with a time of 47.98 seconds. The gold medal was claimed by the USA’s Rai Benjamin, who clocked 46.46 seconds. Given that Samba returned to competition just two months earlier at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting after a lengthy injury layoff, his performance was still impressive.
Samba’s career has been plagued by injuries since his stellar 2018 season, when he set an Asian record with a time of 46.98 seconds.
After earning a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, he missed the 2020 season and finished fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021. A hamstring injury sidelined him for much of the 2022 season but he made a strong comeback in October 2023, clinching his second consecutive Asian Games gold in Hangzhou.
