28 Apr 2024
Student-athlete Seif Hemeida (Seifeldin Mohamed Abdelsalam) and Aspire-coached athlete Oumar Doudai Abakar both won gold medals for Qatar at the Asian Under-20 Athletics Championships.
In the pole vault Seif Hemeida, who is coached by Qatar Athletics Federation’s (QAF) Pawel Szczyrba, retained the title he won in South Korea last year with his first-time clearance at 5.30 metres, as Japan’s Yoshida Rikuya failed at the same height.
Despite having claimed the title, Seif Hemeida continued jumping and broke his own championship record by clearing 5.51m on his second attempt.
He then had three failures at 5.60m as he bid to break his own Qatar national record of 5.55m.
Part-time athlete Oumar Doudai Abakar also won gold for Qatar and set a world-leading under-20 time in the 110m hurdles, winning in 13.24 seconds.
There were mixed emotions for Ibrahim Haydar Abdalla in the 800m final, as he narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth. Still, his new personal best time of 1:50.14 is under the qualifying time for the World Under-20 Athletics Championships.
Another student-athlete, Rakan Al-Rashidi, also set a new personal best of 7.00m in the long jump final.
All three will now hope to be part of the team named by the QAF for the World Under-20 Championships in Peru in August.
Qatar ended the Asian Under-20 Championships with a total of four golds and a silver.
The three other medals were won by Hatim Aitoulghazi, who took gold in the 1500m and silver in the 800m, while on the opening day, Djibrine Ahmat claimed the discus title.
The QAF and Aspire Academy will now work closely to decide on which student-athletes will make the team for the 20th Arab Junior (U20) Championships in Cairo, Egypt, which are due to run from Egypt 07-11 May.
(Photo credit: Luke Gallagher)