DOHA, 15 December 2006 — By winning more than half of the country’s medals at the Asian Games the Saudi athletics team are easily the template of a highly successful program that in future would have their home-grown athletes ranked up there with the world’s elite.

The team returned to Saudi Arabia in groups on Wednesday and yesterday, but the imprint they had left in the Doha Games touted as the biggest in history of the Asiad is something special.

“To participate in such big events like the Asian Games 2006 is a great experience for the athletes. They are trying really hard to achieve good results,” said Larry Wade, coach of some of the athletes including Hamdan Al-Bishi and Mohammed Al-Salhi. “There are great new Saudi young talents in athletics and one day, the Saudi athletics will be the best in the world.”

The talent pool is indeed young and deep, with many in the 31-man squad disovered in the grassroots level under 20 years of age and sent here to gain the needed international exposure and experience.

Ten athletes landed five gold and two bronze medals in six events for the Kingdom.

The Big Ten and Saudi Arabia’s big heroes at the Games were

Asia’s fastest man Hassan Habeeb, Hamdan Al-Bishi, shot put king Sultan Al-Hebshi, Sultan Al-Dawodi, Hussain Al-Saba, Ahmed bin Marzouq, Hamed Al-Bishi, Ismail Al-Sabiani and Mohammed Al-Salhi.

The double gold medalist, Hamdan Al-Bishi, 25, in the men’s 400m and 4x400m relay, took up athletics 1996 when he competed and won a silver medal in the Youth Athletics Championship in Syria.

“The first person to spot my ability in athletics was Hadi Bakr in the Armed Forces whom I consider a father figure for me,” he said.

Hamdan, a world-class athlete, was mighty proud of his gold medal in the 2001 World Athletics Championship that placed the Kingdom in the world sporting map. His achievements are too many he has lost count of them though obviously the world championship gold is the one he treasures the most.

The Busan Games defeat in 2002 was a bitter pill to swallow. “I lost the gold medal in that race in the same way that I won it this year in the same race,” Hamdan said. “The hardship in the last championship was that in the men’s 400m race I was less than a second away from first place and as a result I got a silver medal instead of gold.”

But no matter, the Doha double for Hamdan made up for his failure in Busan.

In the men’s 400m this year, he won the race with a difference of 0.04 fractions of a second when he finished the race with a time of 45.64 while the second ranked Bahraini’s time was 45.68.

“These results are to be expected for Saudi Arabia especially in athletics. It always has a strong presence in that event. We are here to compete and entertain the fans that have watched and supported us,” he said.

Now, Hamdan is looking forward to possibly his last Olympics in Beijing, China in 2008. He said he might retire after the Beijing Games to spend more time with his family.

He has done Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 where he reached the semifinals. Asian Games 2006 was the first time for him to win gold in the Asian level.

“This year’s level of performance by the Saudi athletes in athletics was higher than in Busan for a simple reason and it is that other teams offered citizenship to foreign athletes and made them compete for them in Doha. The presence of the foreigners naturally raised the competition to a higher level. This was a motivation for us to prove ourselves, play on an international level and beat all opponents with our strong team.”

His cousin Hamed Al-Bishi, 26, shared the 4x400m relay gold medal with him and two other teammates. He started to go into athletics in the year 1996 in school championships. “This played an important role that encouraged me to continue in athletics as well as my elder cousin, Mohammed Al-Bishi, who used to play in the Saudi athletics team,” Hamed said.

At school, Hamed used to practice long jump and 100m race, the events that fit the school’s small space.

He started to be part of the Saudi athletics team in the year 1998. “A French coach discovered my skills in 1998 and asked me to join the team,” he said.

Hamed’s baptism of fire was a school competition in Morocco 1998. “The hardest competition until today was when I participate in the 400m hurdles for the first time in the same year 1998. I was new to the event but then I won first place.”

The medal Hamed achieved was in a Gulf athletics championship in Oman in 1999. He then participated in the same year in the World Athletic Championship in Spain with the men’s team.

He also participated in Olympics Sydney 2000 then in 2001 in Canada and Holland. He went to many training camps. According to him, the best training camps he went to was in the US and Europe. Among his successes were a gold medal each in the Asian Championship in 2005 in men’s 200m in Korea and in 4x400m relay in Busan 2002. “We find appreciation of our achievements especially from Prince Nawaf bin Mohammed, the president of the Saudi Olympic Athletics Federation, who is the first supporter for us. He is the one that developed in athletics in Saudi Arabia.

The youngest athlete in the Saudi athletics team Ismail Al-Sabiani, 18, also paid part of the effort in winning the gold medal in the 4x400m relay. After being discovered in Abha during school meets Al-Sabiani eventually made the national team and participated in the Arabian Athletics Championship for Juvenile in Rabat 2004.

In the World Championship in Marrakech, Al-Sabiani got a bronze medal in a relay race. “Asian Games 2006 is the toughest competition since I started which is the first Asian championship that I take part in,” he said.

An athlete to the core, Al-Sabiani left school after the eleventh grade to concentrate on athletics. However, he hopes continue his education and pursue his love of athletics as well.

“I get trained on a continuous basis. I only took a break in Eid Al-Fitr. I participated in the Arabian championship in Egypt this year posting a new record that is 47.94 in the 400m race. This was the first participation for me in 400m. I usually run in 800m which is more difficult,” he said.

Experienced Hadi Soaan and Hamdan Al-Bishi give him tips and advice on how to act in front of the huge audience and TV cameras. “They advise me not to be nervous in front of the audience and TV camera or my family who is watching me on TV as it is the firs time for me to participate in such a huge championship. I take their advice as the method I use in all competitions.”

The fourth runner in the 4x400m relay was Mohammed Al-Salhi, 20. His passion for sports began at an early age of 10 when he did taekwondo at this club at Khamis Mushayt. Some athletics officials saw him play taekwondo and saw that his tall body is fit to be a runner.

“I started athletics in 2001 and next year I was in Busan and won a gold medal in 400m,” he said.

In 2003, he got a medal in the world athletics finals in Canada. He also did Athens Olympics 2004 and world athletics championship in Helsinki 2005.

Al-Salhi was ranked world fifth best athlete in the Super Grandbury Award which ranked the best 20 athletes in the world.

Although he likes taekwondo, he gives priority to athletics. “I like taekwondo and it was my start in sports; however, it would be difficult if I played both sports together as in taekwondo I will be beaten up and my body will be easily injured. Being a runner demands a healthy body empty of any injuries as it affects the speed and performance.”

Among the many hats he wears (employee, businessman, athlete), Al-Salhi considers athletics his main career. In preparation for the Asian Games, Al-Salhi trained for 10 months in Morocco, a month in Ethiopia and two weeks in Abu Dhabi.