18 Feb 2016
Doha, 18 February 2016. From February 19 to 21, the Aspire Dome will be the stage for Asia’s athletics elite at the ‘7th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships’. Among the list of 432 athletes representing 37 nations, who are due to compete in Doha some promising graduates of Aspire Academy can be found as well: Local hero and defending Asian and World indoor high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim leads the men’s chart of 175 competitors, Abubaker Haydar (800m), Mousab Adam (1500m) and Mohammed Mannai (Heptathlon) are also representing Qatar at this event.
Those who aim to duplicate their success from the 2014 Indoor Championships in Hangzhou, China are Qataris Samuel Francis (60m), Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla (800m), Mohamed Al Garni (1500m & 3000m) and Barshim. Mahdi Zamani and Maryam Toosi from Iran will also be looking to defend the 400m titles they captured in Hangzhou, China, as will Kuwaitis Abdulaziz Almandeel (60m hurdles) and Saleh Alhaddad (long jump) and Japan’s Tomomi Abiko in pole vault. Olympic triple jump champion and Asian record holder Olga Rypakova from Kazakhstan is undoubtedly the one to watch among the 115 female athletes preparing to flock to Aspire Dome’s state-of-the-art facility.
India’s Om Prakash Karhan is rated among the favourites in the shot put in his quest for back-to-back Asian indoor titles, as is Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Radzivil. Nevertheless, compatriot Nadiya Dusanova’s presence will surely pile pressure on her plans for a repeat in the high jump competition. Kazakhstan’s Elina Mikhina, a 4X400m gold medallist from 2014 aspires to double her titles as well, but she should expect stiff opposition in the 400m, the event she has signed in.
“The increasing numbers of nations and athletes, who are set to compete at the 7th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, showcases the tremendous efforts the Asian Athletics Association and the Qatar Athletics Federations had put in, in the last couple of years, to develop and expand athletics throughout our vast continent,” said the AAA and QAF President Major General Dahlan Al Hamad and added: “I am also proud to see the number of female Qatari athletes qualified to compete internationally, upsurge in recent years. Qatar has made giant steps towards the development of women’s athletics and we feel that quite soon our long-term plan will bear fruit.”
Find out more about the event on http://athleticsasia.org.
ASPIRE ACADEMY GRADUATES AT 7th ASIAN INDOOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP:
|
Athlete
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Day
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Time
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Event
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Mutaz Barshim
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Friday
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6:40pm
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HJ Final
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|
Abubaker Haydar
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Friday
|
7:10pm
|
800m Heats
|
|
Sunday
|
5:15pm
|
800m Final
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Mousab Adam
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Saturday
|
5:15pm
|
1500m Final
|
|
Mohammed Mannai
|
Saturday
|
10:00am
|
Heptathlon – 60m
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