TAIF, 4 August 2006 — Algeria’s Hannash Abdul Basit beat back the challenge of Omar Hassanin of Syria in a sprinting battle to the finish to win the final event yesterday in the 14th Arab Cycling Championship here.
Basit clocked 4 hours 4 minutes and 50 seconds to clinch the gold medal in the 150-kilometer road race.
Hassanin who was a fraction of a second behind Basit received the silver medal. Bader Mirza of the UAE took the bronze medal in the event.
The final day of the competition was not without incident as Qatari Bilal Zaid took a spill during the race and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. He was released later in the day.
Tunisia won the team race with a total time of 12 hours, 17 minutes and 24 seconds. Egypt came in second with 12:18:06 and Algeria third with 12:18:28.
