Qatari shooter Rashid Saleh Al Athba yesterday wrapped up his Olympic campaign with a near-perfect show of 24 and 25 in the last two rounds.
Doha: Qatari sprinter Ammar Ismail will take the men’s 400m track at Stade de France in Paris today, hoping for an impressive debut in the Olympic Games.
The 27-year-old will participate in the second heat scheduled at 8:13pm (Doha time), hoping to clinch a top-three finish to secure a place in the semi-final.
The anticipated event features a star studded line-up including Britain’s European record-holder Matthew Hudson-Smith, a world leader, and Tokyo gold medalist Steven Gardiner of Bahamas.
Ismail, a 2022 GCC Games, 2023 West Asian Athletics Championships and 2023 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships gold medalist, will be the second Qatar athlete to compete on the track after sprinter Shahd Ashraf participated in the women’s 100m on Friday.
The 20-year-old achieved her personal best on her Olympic debut, clocking 12.53 seconds to finish 25th out of 36 sprinters.
Ammar Ismail will be in action in the men’s 400m heats today.
Eight Qatar athletes are taking the track and field competitions in the ongoing Olympics with Abderrahman Samba, Bassem Hemeida and Ismail Doudai Abakar scheduled to feature in the men’s 400m hurdles tomorrow. Qatar’s Olympic hero Mutaz Barshim will start his title defence in the high jump on August 7 with Abubakar Hayder also starting his campaign in the 800 meters the same day.
Shooter Al Athba falls short
Meanwhile, Rashid Saleh Al Athba yesterday wrapped up his Olympic campaign with a near-perfect show of 24 and 25 in the last two rounds on second day of qualification in the men’s skeet event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
Al Athba, who shot 24, 22, 23 out of 25 target each on Friday, finished with an aggregate of 118 to secure 15th spot out of 30 shooters in the men’s skeet event.
With six shooters advancing to the final following the two-day qualification round, USA’s Vincent Hancock took the gold medal beating his compatriot and student Conner Prince. He hit 58 out of 60 shots to Prince’s 57 with Chinese Taipei’s Lee Meng-yuan (45 shots) claiming the bronze medal.
