QATAR WINS GOLD MEDAL-Thamer strikes gold for Qatar

QATAR added two more medals, including one gold yesterday to take their tally to four as records kept tumbling at the third Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. Five more new championship records were set at Aspire where China dominated the proceedings with three gold medals out of the total eight decided yesterday.
Qatar’s Thamer Ali being one of them on his way to the victory in men’s 1500m. His winning time of 3:40.86sec eclipsed the previous mark set by compatriot Daham Bashir yesterday at Aspire.
Bashir, who won in Pattaya two years ago in 3:44.04sec, gave impression of consecutive victory when he completed the first 400 metres leading the six-man pack. But Thamer took over from him after that and never looked back to win the gold medal, shedding the previous mark by almost four seconds to lower the time to 3:40.86sec.
“I’m very happy with the result,â€‌ said Thamer after the race. “I’m undergoing serious preparation for this meet. So I was confident of a victory.â€‌
And he revealed his determination to carry on the momentum to next month’s World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain and also to the Olympic Games in August. “I’m all focused to do better at World Indoor Championships and Olympic Games,â€‌ he added.
India’s Hamza Chatholi won silver with the timing of 3:41.18sec, while Abubaker Kamal took bronze in 3:42.50sec. Kamal also qualified for 800m final with the timing of 1:51.09sec.
Kamal, who trailed China’s Li Xiangyu and compatriot Adam Ali in the 800m heat on Thursday, said: “I have to preserve energy as I was running two events back to back. And I’m satisfied with my performances.â€‌
But there was a disappointment for the hosts as two other Qataris in the 800m Musaab Bala and Adam Ali failed in the semi-finals.
Bahrain’s Ruqaya al-Ghasara started from where she left off on Thursday, becoming the first athlete to win gold medals at the meet. After winning the women’s 60m in a new meet record on the opening day, al-Ghasara returned to the track to better the championship record in 400m yesterday.
Having already lowered the four-year-old championship mark of 54.46sec by Tatyana Roslanova to 54.12sec in the heats, the 20-year-old Bahraini further cut down over one second to win the event in 53.28sec. But her attempt to better the current Asian Record of 52.27sec of Li Yajun of China was unsuccessful.
Kazakhstan’s Marina Mastyonko took silver, finishing tenth of a second behind al-Ghasara in 53.38sec, while bronze medal went to India’s Mandeep Kaur who completed in 54.28sec.
Also on song was China’s Liu Xiaosheng as he won the men’s 400m with a new meet timing of 47.82sec. The previous best of 47.90sec was set by Oman’s Mohammed Salem al-Rawahi in 2006. Kazakhstan’s Sergey Zaikov took silver in 48.12sec, while Ali Shirook of UAE finished the race in 48.24sec for bronze. Qatari runner Mohammed Sagayroon failed to make it to the final after his disappointing time of 50.59sec in the heat.
Xiaosheng’s compatriot Liu Jing also broke the championship record in her victory in the women’s 60m hurdles. She eclipsed previous mark of 8.34sec, also set by Chinese Xu Jia in 2004, clocking 8.31sec.
Preeja Shreedhran led India’s one-two finish in the women’s 3,000m clocking 9:12.26sec, also a new meet record. Kavita Raut finished in 9:26.01sec to claim silver, while Bakheet Sara Yaqoob of Bahrain ran 9:40.47sec to take bronze.
Japan finished one-two in the men’s pole vault with Daichi Sawano claiming the gold medal clearing 5.45m, while Takafumi Suzuki won silver ahead Uzbekistan’s Leonid Andreev on the basis of a fewer attempts made as both cleared 5.35m.
Roman Valiyev of Kazakhstan won men’s triple jump gold as he came up with the best leap of 16.32m in his first attempt itself. India’s Amarjeet Singh won silver with a jump of 16.24m, while the bronze medal went to Thailand’s Theerayut Philakong, who cleared 16.04m.
Kazakhstan had earlier added two more medals to their growing total as Irina Naumenko claiming gold in women’s pentathlon – the last event decided on Thursday evening – with a cumulative score of 4235 points. Thailand’s Wassana Withano claimed silver on 4184 points and another Kazakh athlete Olga Lapina scored 3906 points for bronze.
Lapina was comfortably placed at the end of three events with victories in high jump and shot put. But she failed to carry the form into long jump and 800m as Naumenko won both to rally to the top of the podium.
Withano made a bright start to win 60m hurdles – the first of the five events and stood second in four events with only shot put proving to be her weakest point finishing in fourth.