Tuesday 16 / April / 2024
Rio de Janeiro: Mazoon Al Alawi came up with a sensational run to qualify for the women’s 100m first round heats at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on Friday.
The 18-year-old Omani girl began her Olympics debut in the second of the three preliminary heats on Friday and finished third after a photo finish with Patricia Taea of Cook Islands.
The heat was won by Suriname’s Sunayna Wahi in a time of 12.09 seconds. Mazoon almost got the better of Patricia in the final stretch but their contest ended in a photo finish with both timing 12.30 seconds.
Ultimately it was Patricia who was declared the winner of second place in the heat and at that time it seemed Mazoon’s participation in the Games has come to an end.
However, it has emerged that the Omani girl has qualified for the first round heats which will now take place on Saturday, when she will be running in the seventh of eight heats.
Barakat to open campaign
Meanwhile, a fully prepared and fit to run Barakat Al Harthi is all set to begin his 100m campaign on Saturday.
Barakat is sounding confident of reaching the final while his fans back home are hoping for a medal from the Omani star sprinter.
Barakat Al Harthi has been preparing hard for the Rio Games and recently he enhanced his hopes by clocking his personal best during his training sessions in Bulgaria under the guidance of his Bulgarian coach Yanko Bratanov.
With top Jamaican athletes like Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake lined up for the 100m, Barakat will certainly face stiff competition. However, the focus will be on how far the Omani athlete can reach in the glamour event of the Rio Olympics.
On eve of the his participation in the heats, Barakat thanked the Ministry of Sports Affairs for helping him during his preparations and hoped his hard work during the recent training camps in America, Bahrain and Bulgarian will stand in good stead.
He had also performed well during the camps in Bulgaria and the GCC Games in Riyadh as well as competitions in the United Arab Emirates.
“All these competitions and training sessions have done wonders to my confidence and I hope to leave an impression in Rio,” said Barakat.
“My aim is to qualify step by step and reach the final of the 100m,” he said.
Barakat had also qualified for the 100m final in the Asian Indoor Championship in Doha in February and the World Indoors in United States in March.
In Bulgaria, Barakat had gone closer to break the 10 second barrier, while clocking his personal best of 10.05 seconds in Stara Zagaro.
The 27-year-old in May had clocked 10.14s in Sliven, to break his own record of 10.16s set during the Military World Games in Mungyeong, South Korea in October last year, which led to his qualifying for the Rio Olympics.
Incidentally, Barakat is the only athlete from Oman to have achieved the Olympic qualifying mark.
If Barakat can break the 10 seconds barrier, it will be historic as far as Oman athletics is concerned.
Meanwhile, Taha bin Sulaiman Al Kishri, Secretary General of the Oman Olympic Committee, met the Oman athletes in presence of national athletic coach Mohammed Al Hooti and urged them to give their best.
