Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Bulgaria: Omani sprinter Barakat Al Harthi broke his 100 metres record by clocking 10.05 seconds during the Samara Flag competition in Bulgaria on Thursday.
Al Harthi outshone the Bulgarian 100m national champion to secure the first place in the open tournament. His previous timing was 10.14secs, which he recorded in the Bulgarian city of Silven at an open competition.
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The time taken by Oman’s Olympics hopeful brings him one step closer to his dream of reaching the finals at this year’s global event.
“I am very happy and excited for this new record, it gives me so much confidence. I feel great and hope to do the same or even better in the Olympics. I am hoping to target 9.99 and I will train hard for it.”
The award was presented to him by the Bulgarian Sports Minister Krassen Kralev.
Al Harthi said he won’t compete again until the torch arrives in Rio de Janeiro on August 5, but will be practising very hard.
“My coach Yankov says that I will not be taking part in any competition from now on, but that I should practice twice a day. He also said we need to focus on my power and save it for the Olympics.”
In a month’s time, Barakat will be in Cuba to acclimatise himself. “We keep moving to different places because sometimes the weather in a specific place is not suitable for training, it gets very cold and starts to rain all the time. We will be heading to Cuba soon and there I will get a taste of Rio’s weather.”
The Olympic Games will begin on August 5 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
