(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) First yellow metal for the UAE at Incheon Asian Games; Emirati wins 10000m race in style.
UAE's Alia Saeed Mohammed celebrates after victory in the final of the women's 10000m athletics. -AFP
Brilliant 23-year old Alia Saeed Mohammed the Emirati super star of the track and the Asian Athletics Championships champion won the gruelling 10000m women’s final to give the UAE its first gold medal at the Asian Games in Incheon on Saturday.
The history making effort in athletics for the UAE came about when Alia ran a tactically shrewd and brilliant race in the afternoon in the South Korean city.
Staying in the pace setting front pack of six runners she later on after lying in third place behind the Bahraini Chinese and Japanese aspirants made her decisive move in world class pace with five laps to go to finish ahead of China’s Ding Changqin and Japan’s Ayumi Hagiwara.“This is the most awesome day of my life. I am so so happy to have two achievements on a single day. First I have won my first-ever Asian gold medal and to do this with a personal best time is just so amazing” an excited Alia said after the race.
UAE Athletics Association President Ahmed Al Kamali who had made a promise to deliver at least three medals from the track and field competition was a proud man. “I have made a promise and we are just beginning to fulfill this promise. One medal gone and we have two more to go in the next few days of competition” Al Kamali said. This is the second medal in the 2014 Asiad for the UAE after Shaikh Juma bin Dalmouk Al Maktoum won the men’s double trap bronze on Thursday.
Her fantastic personal best of 31min 51sec and 86sec in Incheon is among the top 10 times in the world this year and was only less than 10 seconds off the Asian Games all time meet mark. Alia is also scheduled to participate in the women’s 5000m in the coming days. Asiad athletics programme took off at the main stadium in the South Korean northern port city on Saturday. The UAE have taken to Incheon the highly experienced but young women’s distance running duo of Alia and her team-mate Bethlhem Desalegn (both former junior Ethiopian hopefuls who settled in the UAE) along with 400m exponent Saud Abdul Karim and veteran discus thrower Saber Bayaha. On Saturday’s opening day of track and field competition Alia was the first in action — the women’s 10000-metre final at 7.30pm (2.30pm UAE) followed by Abdul Karim in the men’s 400-metre heats at 9pm.
Bethlhem was scheduled to be the third UAE athlete to compete at the magnificent blue track main complex when she was expected for the 3000-metre steeplechase final — the final event of the evening at 10.05pm on Saturday.
Bayaha will participate in the men’s discus on Tuesday.
Bethlhem is also due to participate in the women’s 800 1500m and 5000m during the course of the week.
Meanwhile in the another event Saud Abdul Kareem had improved his season’s best to qualify to the semifinals of the men’s 400m as one of fastest four. However the UAE athlete who was expected to at least advance to the finals failed to do so as he finished seventh in the semi-finals held later in the evening. The UAE’s Ahmed Al Mansoori signed off his campaign in the cycling competition with a creditable 15th place in the men’s individual time trial road race held over 42 kms at the Songdo Road Race Course earlier in the evening. Racing against more accomplished and professional riders Al Mansoori had splits of 19:20.71 18:55.94 and 19:23.45 to finish with a time of 57:40.10. Kazakhstan’s Alexey Lutsenko took the gold medal Kyrgyzstan got the silver through Evgenii Vakker and Hossein Askari of Iran took the bronze medal.
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