Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba competes in the men’s 400m hurdles heats.
Doha, Qatar: Qatari athletes made history by booking three spots in the 400m hurdles at the World Championships, while Seif Mohamed finished among the top 10 pole vaulters in Tokyo yesterday.
Asian record holder Abderrahman Samba clocked the fastest time in the heats to advance in style at the National Stadium, while Bassem Hemeida and Ismail Doudai Abakar all cruised into the semi-finals to give Qatar high hopes for a podium spot at the Tokyo Worlds.
Samba, the former World Championships bronze medalist, dominated the heat by clocking a time of 48.03 seconds without breaking a sweat. His time was the best among all 44 runners in the preliminary round.
Then it was Hemeida, who also claimed victory in his heat with a strong 48.43 seconds, outplaying the in-form Alison Dos Santos of Brazil. Dos Santos, the Paris Olympics bronze winner and a former world champion, was five one-hundredth of a second slower than the Asian champion.
Then came the 21-year-old Ismail Doudai Abakar, who was up against the world-record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway among others. Brazil’s Matheus Lima was the surprise winner of the heat, while Abakar stunned the reigning world champion Warholm with a 48.34-second run. With the top four runners from each of the heats, along with four others advancing, the Qatari presence will be highlighted in the semis, which will take place tomorrow.
Qatar’s Seif Mohamed competes in the men’s pole vault final. AFP
Meanwhile, Qatar’s young pole vaulter Seif Mohamed concluded his remarkable World Championships journey with a top-10 finish in the final. Competing against the world’s elite, he cleared a final height of 5.75m, placing ninth overall. While the final was dominated by the global pole vault sensation Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, who went on to renew the world record for an unprecedented 14th time, setting a massive 6.30-metre mark, finishing ninth at the Worlds marks a major achievement for Qatar’s 20-year-old Mohamed.
Earlier, Qatar’s Omar Doudai Abakar came last in his heat in the men’s 110 metres hurdles, clocking a time of 14.03 secs, dipping way below his personal best time of 13.37.
Today, two Qatari athletes will be in action.
Ibrahim Abbas will run in the men’s 800 metres heats at 1:35pm Qatar time, while Ammar Ismail looks to secure a place in the men’s 400 metres final when he hits the track in the semis at 3:35pm.
