Morocco's Ilyass El Ouali and Qatar's Mohamed Al Garni in action during the men's 1500 metres Reuters/Ibraheem Al Omari
Doha: The Qatari athletes yesterday made their presence felt with impressive performances at the star-studded Doha Diamond League at Qatar SC Stadium in absence of their much revered team-mates Mutaz Barshim and Abderrahman Samba.
Mohamed Nasir Abbas was the standout performer for the hosts, claiming third position in the men’s 400m race with season’s best time of 45.96.
“I am happy to make Qatar proud here tonight and I thank everyone for their support. I started training about six weeks back in Antalya in Turkey and to emerge third here tonight is a good result. Hopefully the result will push me on going forward,” said Abbas.
Kahmari Montgomery (USA) won the contest in 45.55 while Kuwait’s Yousef Karam took second place.
Also, Youth Olympics champion Abdelaziz Mohamed clocked 20.88s in the men’s 200m race, which was won by Arthur Cisse of Cote d’Ivoire with his personal best of 20.23. Qatar’s 18-year-old claimed sixth position with his time.
Mohamed Al Garni finished second in 1500m race, which was not a part of the main event. The talented middle-distance runner clocked 3:44.30 behind Ilyass El Quali (3:43.66) of Morocco.
In men’s 1500, Adam Ali Mousab (3:35.60) and Hamza Driouch (3:37.15) also posted impressive times, while clocked Jamal Hairane 1:47.88 in the men’s 800m race.
