Mubbarak Shami (Qatar) wins the 2005 Vienna marathon men's race (© Florian Batschi/Vienna marathon)
Mubarak Shami who was so narrowly beaten on the line to the World Half Marathon title in Edmonton, Canada on 1 October, triumphed over the same distance this morning at the 3rd West Asian Games in Doha Qatar.
The 25-year-old Qatari, formerly the Kenyan Richard Yatich, ran away to an easy 1:02:21 victory over his compatriot Ahmed Jaber (1:03:00), though the chances of a national triumph, were pretty high considering that there was only one other competitor in the race. In foggy conditions, Noori Jabir of Iraq finished 10 minutes adrift of gold in a time of 1:12:06.
Shami, who after the heart break of stumbling just before the line and losing the World title in Edmonton to Tanzania’s Fabiano Joseph Naasi, recovered some lost pride later in October with a 2:09:22 national record triumph in the Venice Marathon (23 October), and has a half marathon best of 1:00:31 (2004). The silver medallist Jaber, even at 19 years-of-age is also a well seasoned major championship campaigner. He finished 38th in the 2004 Olympic Marathon, struck a ‘dnf’ to his name at the World Championships in Helsinki, and then finished 23rd in Edmonton at the half marathon distance in October.
Today’s half marathon exemplified the statistical theme and standard of these Games. The three days of track and field competition have thrown up a good level of international results but these have been posted by a dozen or so elite individuals, while the overall depth of most fields has been very light, with today’s road race by no means the only event with just three starters.
Also of international note on the final two days of athletics were four track events:
In the men’s 400m, Kuwait’s 26-year-old Al Shammari Fawzi, who has a personal best of 44.93 which he set in 2003 winning the Doha GP (a time he matched in 2004 when taking the Arab Championships), easily beat a field of eight over the one lap in 47.58.
There was a 1:46.86 win for Qatar’s Majed Sultan in the 800m, while 17-year-old World Youth champion Bilal Mansoor Ali of Bahrain, took a tactical 1500m victory in 3:40.84.
In the final individual track final of the Games, the men’s 5000m there was a Qatari ‘1 – 2’ finish, though Essa Rashed’s win (13:33.07) denied Gamal Salem (silver 13:35.12), a distance double, the latter having been victorious in the 10,000m on Wednesday night.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
Click here for further information and full results
Previous West Asian Games reports:
Former World Youth winner dashes to third sprint crown of year – West Asian Games
A dress rehearsal for 2006 – 3rd West Asian Games
