Doha: Qatar’s Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla is aiming to raise his performance by a few notches and is hoping the Asian Indoor Championships which is due to take place in Doha will be an ideal setting to shift gears and touch new heights

The 800m reigning Asian indoor and outdoor champion 2015 had been outstanding but it seems the best is yet to come for the 26-year-old Qatari middle-distance runner.

“It is true that 2015 was exceptional for me nevertheless I am not only hoping to keep up the same pace in 2016 but achieve even better results. The first challenge lying ahead is the Asian Indoor Championships a very special competition for all members of the Qatari team since it is being held on home turf” says Balla a 2015 two-lap World Outdoor Championships finalist.

The continental championship takes place from February 19 to 21 at Aspire Dome.

Balla is one of the most recognisable figures in Qatar athletics and as a distinct member of the nation’s Asian Championships squad he will certainly be backed not only by his family and friends but by all local fans in the Aspire Dome arena a support that will surely provide him with extra motivation to claim first place in the 800m final.

“Competing in Aspire’s beautiful track with my closest people by my side means a lot to me and makes me want to push myself harder to live up to their expectations and succeed in front of the home crowd. I want to make them all proud especially our federation who is taking care of all our needs and offer us unlimited support.

“This year we may boast of having a fantastic team which can push Qatar become Asia’s best nation once more and repeat the 2014 feat. I truly believe that this team has more potential to top the medal table and can count on the experience we all have gained by competing at international events in recent years.”

Winning in Doha is not Balla’s ultimate target for the indoor season. After narrowly missed the Asian indoor record last year when he was clocked 1:45.48 in Stockholm the world’s top mark indoors he has now set sights on eclipsing Yusuf Saad Kamel’s 1:45.26 the fastest 800m run by an Asian.

“I want to break that record desperately. I came so close to beating it last season and I feel my time has come to become Asia’s number one at last. I just need the right race and an ideal pace.”

To make it so Balla has worked on new race tactics and training regimes which he aims will assist him show an even more competitive spirit ahead of a quite challenging year which will culminate with the Olympic Games in Rio.

“As I said before I hope 2016 will prove to be a great year for me. This season is extremely important mostly because of the Olympics. The progress I made in 2015 was outstanding but I needed to make more changes in my training and find the race tactic that suits me the most in order to go one step beyond” deems Balla whose personal best (and national record) outdoors is 1:43.82 set last July in Barcelona in one of his career’s only two sub-1:44 runs.

The Peninsula