Friday 27 / December / 2024
Muscat: For the second consecutive day, Oman’s athletes failed to go beyond the semifinal heats at the 19th Asian Games as the pair of Mohammed Obaid Al Sadi and Rashid Al Aasmi bowed out of the 200m race at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday. Al Sadi and Al Aasmi began the day’s proceedings on a positive note as they advanced to the semifinal round after recording 21.24sec and 21.35s respectively in their first round heat.
Al Sadi displayed early promise as he finished heat 1 in third place among the eight runners. Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Han Yang won the heat in 20.98s while South Korea’s Minkyu Shin was second with a time of 21.03.
Competing in round one Heat 4, Al Aasmi fi nished fi fth in his race with Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Mohammed winning the first round in a time of 20.78s. Al Aasmi’s timing of 21.35, however, was enough for him to get a place in the semifinal heat later in the day.
However, like their 100m teammates, Barakat Al Harthi and Ali Anwar Al Balushi, who also failed to advance to the 100m final on Saturday, Al Sadi and Al Aasmi also crashed out in the semifinals.
Both Al Sadi and Al Aasmi clocked 21.32sec and finished sixth and seventh in their respective semifinal heats. Both the athletes’ timings were much below their personal and season best times.
While Al Sadi’s personal best is 20.62, Al Aasmi’s PB is 20.78. Elyas finishes second in Group B 67kg event.
The other Omani in action on Sunday was Elyas Al Busaidi in weightlifting at the Xiaoshan Sports Centre (XSC) Gymnasium. Competing in Group B of the 67kg nonOlympic class, Elyas lifted 118kg in snatch and then lifted 157kg in clean and jerk for a total of 275kg to finish behind Group B winner Kazakhstan’s Ishimbek Muratbek who lifted a combined 277kg.
Athletes are divided into groups of 10 competitors at major and international championships. Lifters in Group B submit lower entries than weightlifters in Group A. China’s Lijun Chen later won the gold after the Group A competition finished on Sunday with a combined lift of 330kg, a Games record. He lifted 150kg in snatch and then 180kg in clean and jerk.
Elyas’s total matched the weight of the ninth placed lifter in Group A. Oman meet South Korea today On Monday, Oman will conclude their hockey group engagement with a game against fancied South Korea, who will look for a victory to advance to the semi-finals. Korea and Malaysia are tied with nine points each while China tops the Pool B with 12 points.
Oman, coached by Dutchman Siegfried Aikman, have registered two wins so far against Thailand and Indonesia respectively and suffered defeats at the hands of Malaysia and China. Oman would hope to give Koreans a good fight to conclude their campaign at the Games on a positive note.
Also in action will be the 4x100m relay quartet of Barakat Al Harthi, Ali Anwar Al Balushi, Mohammed Obaid Al Sadi, Rashid Al Aasmi and Khalid Al Ghailani. The final four will be picked ahead of heat 1 on Monday. Husain Al Farsi will also compete in the 800m round one heat on Monday.
If the relay quartet and Al Farsi manage to reach the finals of their respective events, Oman’s campaign in athletics will continue till Tuesday when the finals of 800m and 4x100m relay will be held. Oman’s high jumper Fatek Beit Jaaboub, who was part of the athletics squad, was injured during training and had to be withdrawn from the event. Fatek had done Oman proud in July when he won the gold at the Pan Arab Games in Morocco.
Oman’s lifter Amur Al Khanjari will be the final athlete in action when the Group B category event in the 81kg class will be held at the XSC Gymnasium on Tuesday.
