CAIRO, 25 November 2007 — Kingdom’s athletes added yet another feather to their cap when they won another gold in the 4x400 relay on the last day of the athletics event at the 11 Pan-Arab Games yesterday.
The team of Al-Beshi cousins, Hamdan and Hamid, Mohammed Al-Salihi and Ismael Al-Sibyani breezed to a golden finish in 3.04.74 seconds.
Saudi Arabia also added one silver medal and two bronze in the tally. One more day is left for Saudis to gain another medal as the Saudi football national team meet hosts Egypt in the final today at the Cairo Stadium at 8:15 p.m. (Saudi time). The closing ceremony will run after the match at the same stadium.
Victory in the 4x400m relay put Saudis on top with Sudan and Tunisia placing second and third respectively. According to Hamdan, the starter in the relay, “I just got silver a day earlier and had worked hard to go one better this time round. Thank God we succeeded in doing so. Our plan was to start tough and it worked, the next two runners sustained the pace allowing the anchor a leeway to hold on to the pace till the end of the race,” he said.
He also added, Saudi Arabia has been holding up with a good record in the 4x400 since 2002, when they recorded 3.03 seconds. Hamid too agreed on the strength of the competition despite making it a start to finish affair. “We were excepting to land the gold but did not want to underestimate the other teams. Though competition was keen, we were really not pushed as it is the end of the season and the athletes were exhausted from participating in many previous events. Also the additional pressure on the athletes, specially those who participated in two events instead of one today, too helped us. Anyway we tried our best and we did it and we are glad of course,” he said.
The athletic team also claimed a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles thank to Idrees Hawasawi who clocked 51.15 seconds. Algerian Abdulrahman Hammad placed first with 50.77 seconds, while UAE’s Ali Obaid came third with 51.66 second. Fourth place went to Bandar Sharahili of Saudi Arabia, who clocked 51.91 seconds. Hawasawi said the load of pressure put on them on the last day made it a bit hard to concentrate but he was glad he made it and now looks forward to improve so that he can qualify for the Beijing Olympics 2008.
Saudi Arabia clinched its second silver medal of the day through Mohammed Shawein, who placed second in the 1,500 meters race. Hamid Nour, another contestant in the same race, came fourth.
Mohammed Al-Matroud too was fortunate to bring his team a bronze medal in the decathlon event with 6,995 points, in addition to another bronze delivered via high jumper Jameel Qasim after soaring to a height of 2.14 meters. Hamid Al-Beshi had participated in the 200 meters final but could only manage fifth.
Al-Matroud expressed his joy and satisfaction on his performance considering he had not been contesting for two years due to injury and had prepared for this event just three months prior to the games. “I believe I did well after being away for a long time and of course I will work harder to do even better in the future.” He said after the first day performances, he had hoped to have landed the silver as he was in touch with the first placed Qatari and second-placed Algerian. But he was happy to finish among the medals.
