Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Barkat Al Harthi raced to 60m gold to open Oman’s medal account in the ongoing Asian Beach Games in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Tuesday.
On a day of very positive results for Oman that saw the Sultanate’s soccer and volleyball teams progress to next rounds and handball record a crucial victory, Barakat ran a perfect race to take 60m gold medal in a time of 6.44 seconds ahead of Iran’s Reza GHasemi, who timed 6.55 for his silver.
China’s Xinyue Pan took the bronze in 6.77.
Oman’s other medal hopeful Yahya Al Noufali finished in the fifth place in 6.83 seconds.
Dedicates to country
Later an elated Barakat said:“ I dedicate this gold medal to the Omani people. I would like to thank the Oman Olympic Committee for providing me the opportunity to take part in the Asian Beach Games.”
Oman Olympic Committee Secretary-General Taha bin Suleiman Al Kishry while congratulating Barakat for winning gold, urged the other athletes to aim for good results.
“Our congratulations to Barakat Al Harthi for winning gold for Oman, our first in this edition of the Games. I wish all of them success in the coming events,” he said.
In the women’s 60m race, Mazoon Al Alawi narrowly missed out on a podium finish when she finished fourth in a time of 7.83 seconds.
The event was won by Vietnam’s Chinh Le Tu in 7.60 seconds.
However, Oman can still hope for another athletics medal when Barakat Al Harthi leads Oman’s challenge in the 4x60m final on Wednesday.
Talib’s boys bounce back
Meanwhile, Talib Hilal-coached Oman beach football team bounced back from their shootout defeat in the first match to Lebanon to put it across Qatar to enter the quarterfinals.
In their second Group B match, Abdullah Al Sauti scored a brace and captain Hani Al Dhabi as well as Khalid Al Araimi scored one each as Oman prevailed over Qatar for a 4-2 victory.
Oman play their quarterfinal match against Thailand on Thursday.
Three in a row
The Sultanate’s handball, meanwhile, won their third match in a row when they defeated Afghanistan 26-10, 34-9.
For the unbeaten Omani side, Nasr Al Tamtami was the top scorer with seven goals while Said Al Hassani and Usama Al Kasbi netted five each.
Oman take on Hong Kong on Wednesday and then clash with hosts Vietnam on Thursday.
Oman’s two beach volleyball teams suffered defeats on Tuesday but thanks to their previous victories advanced to the round of 32.
The duo of Haitham Al Shuraiqi and Ahmed Al Hosni were handed a 21-17, 21-7 defeat Thai pair of Prathip Sukto and Adisorn Khaolumtarn.
Badr Al Subhi and Nooh Al Jalboobi were beaten 21-9, 21-17 by Khazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakovlev and Alexey Sidorenko 21-9, 21-17.
In the round of 32 matches, Badr and Nooh will place Sri Lanka’s Pubudu Ekanayakage and Asanka Medagedara while Haitham and Ahmed will clash with Afghanistan’s Omir Zardan and Ramin Sediqi.
