BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Two Qatari track and field stars yesterday bagged gold medals as the host nation added to their bulging overall tally on the last day of the 18th Arab Athletics Championships.
Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla won the gold in the 800m men’s final with a time of 1:45.90, finishing the long distance race ahead of Ibrahim Wutashi of Bahrain and Abdulazziz Laden of Saudi Arabia.
Minutes later, Rashid Shafi Al Dosari and compatriot Ahmed Mohammed Deeb made it a Qatari 1-2 in the men’s discus throw final.
Overall Qatar finished in fifth spot with a tally of 11 medals over four days.
Morocco topped the medals table with an impressive tally of 21. Algeria also impressed at the championships, finishing a notch behind Morocco in overall classification.
Bahrain emerged as the third-best country while Egypt secured the fourth spot.
However, home fans were savoured a good day’s workout as Al Dosari reached a distance of 61.91m to clinch the gold in the men’s discus final while Deeb ended a close second with a mark of 60.46.
The bronze went to Museb Almoumani of Jordan (60.13).
In the men’s 400m hurdles Milad Rahmani of Algeria won the gold with a time of 50.52secs while Mohammed Al Sagheer of Tunisia bagged the silver. Qatar’s Gamal Abdul Nasser Abubaker grabbed the bronze by finishing the race with a time of 51.12.
The fifth and final medal yesterday for Qatar came in the men’s 4x400 relay as the home quartet of Hassan Amman, Nasser, Jamal Heran and Balla finished behind gold medal winners Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s Ismail Al Subyani, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Eid, Yusif Masrahi clocked 3:06.23 for their gold medal, whereas, Qatar ended with a time of 3:09.55.
Algerian athletes picked up the bronze with a time of 3:11.02.
Qatar’s Balla said he was delighted with his gold medal winning performance in the men’s 800m final.
“This was not my personal best but thank God that I still won. I have been training hard and it feels good to win a gold medal in front of home fans,” Balla, who later anchored his team in the 4x400m relay, said.
“Yes, I am satisfied with my performance today. I am already thinking about my next races. I have plans to take part in many Diamond League races but first I have to speak with my coach,” Balla said.
“My focus will be the Asian Championships and the World Championships. I was feeling confident coming into this race. I took part in the Diamond League opening round and there were many big names so my preparation was very good,” he said.
Burly Al Dossri, who walked off with a gold medal dangling around his neck in the men’s discuss final, said he was happy for his team-mate Deeb who won a silver.
“I’m very happy because I have come back from an injury,” Al Dosari said.
“To win here means that I have improved on my fitness. I did well in the GCC (Athletics) Championships (held in Doha in April) as well.
“I’m also very happy for (team-mate) Ahmed (Mohammed Deeb), who won silver as he too has been working very hard. Hopefully we both can put up a good show in the Asian Championship in India,” an overjoyed Al Dosari added.
In a memorable run that won the hearts of the fans at Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium, Iraq’s diminutive sprinter Dana Hussein Abdulrazak landed the gold medal in the women’s 200m final.
Dana won the gold with a time of 23.83secs with a strong lunge at the end. Algeria’s Soheir Bouali (23.91) bagged the silver while Lebanon’s Gretta Taslikiyan (24.21) walked off with a bronze medal.
Dana said: “I am so happy. It was a great win. I had trained so hard for this. I consider this a revenge win as I could not win the 100m final.”
She added: “I had won a bronze in Thailand but could not run in Colombo (earlier this month). I hope I can qualify for the Moscow World Championships (to be held in August this year). I train in Iraq. I feel overwhelmed to raise the Iraqi flag. It feels great to emerge as a winner.”
THE PENINSULA
