BUSAN, South Korea, 11 October — Makhld Al-Otaibi won both his second gold medal at the Asian Games and a promise he can have anything he wants to achieve Olympic glory as he continued Saudi Arabia’s amazing run here yesterday.
“We have a future Olympic champion here. He’s the star of the program,” Saudi athletics chief, Prince Nawaf ibn Muhammad, said after the previously unknown Al-Otaibi raced away with the men’s 5,000 meters title.
“We will offer him all the facilities he needs to compete at the highest level.”
In a showdown over the final 200m, Al-Otaibi clinched his double by perfectly timing his attack on the straight to pass Qatar’s Asian champion Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin, the 3,000 steeplechase gold medalist, and Abdul Hak Zakaria of Bahrain, who took the silver ahead of Saifeldin.
It was double medals for all three Arabic runners after Abdullah had won the 3,000 steeplechase the previous day and Zakaria took bronze Monday behind Al-Otaibi in the 10,000m.
Al-Otaibi’s time of 13 minutes 41.48 seconds was slow as the leaders took the bell in about the same time as the world record of 12:39.36 set by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie’s in 1998. But he was nevertheless delighted at his double success.
Doubling up to win the 5,000m just four days after winning the 10,000m was a remarkable effort, and Al-Otaibi said he had plenty of energy in reserve if needed.
Using the same tactics as in the longer race, the 22-year-old stayed in the leading pack until called on to sprint home and he crossed the line in 13 minutes 41.48 seconds.
“I was hoping for a faster pace. I did not want to take the initiative but I knew I had more endurance than the others,” he said.
“I had hoped the South Korean would step up the tempo in the middle but he didn’t.”
Saudi Arabia had almost a zero track reputation before the Asiad and now has won five gold medals, two of them by the previously unheard of Al-Otaibi.
Their arrival as an emerging track force is the first step on the road to Olympic glory, Prince Nawaf said.
“We expected this. We prepared for this for the past four years in the John Smith program,” said Prince Nawaf.
“We prepared for the Asian Games. Next we move from here to the World Champs and then the Olympics.”
Al-Otaibi is currently the only leading Saudi runner not listed as being coached by John Smith, whose stable of US track stars includes Olympic champion Maurice Greene.
Saudi Arabia is crediting US coaching guru John Smith for masterminding a strategy aimed at challenging Smith’s own stable of American champions at the 2004 Olympics. The rapid development of Saudi runners, starting with a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics and now with four golds at the Asian Games where they had never won before, is no fluke, says Prince Nawaf.
The Asian Games glory is the first chapter of a masterplan which takes in next year’s World Championships and then the Athens Olympics the year after.
Step one in Busan has been one of the success stories of the Asiad. Athletes plucked from the desert sands running world class times and setting Asian records.
“I’m very pleased with the way they are coming on. I remember the first time (he coached Saudis) in 1994 and it’s a lot different now,” said Smith, wearing a Saudi tracksuit in Busan as he watched his protégés in action.
“Prince Nawaf had a vision out of which you come up with a dream. Now, they are breaking Asian records,” Smith said, warning the current crop are the tip of the iceberg.
“There’s more to come. There’s some good young people there.”
Emmanual Hudson, Smith’s partner in Hudson Smith International (HSI) has described Saudi Arabia as having “a real nest of talent” looking for the chance to perform on the world stage.
The blueprint to become a track power has been meticulously drawn up with the Asian Games as the first target.
Indian women shine,
hosts lose soccer semi
India’s women won three athletics golds and the men showed their prowess in hockey, while Japan and Iran reached the soccer final at the expense of Thailand and South Korea at the Asian Games.
The 11th day of competition saw Saraswati Saha (200m) and Sunita Rani (1500m) join discus thrower Neelam Jaswant Singh in claiming gold and the Indian government’s win bonus of $40,000.
Five golds from women athletes helped lift Asia’s second largest country to sixth in the medals table with a total of nine. China maintained their dominance, ending the day with 127 golds, followed by South Korea with 67 and Japan with 39.
Japan reached their first Asian Games soccer final with a 3-0 win over Thailand in the under-23 tournament at Ulsan’s World Cup stadium, but South Korea fell at the semifinal stage as they did in the World Cup finals earlier in the year.
The hosts were upset 5-3 in a penalty shootout by Iran, who are chasing a fourth Asian Games title, after 90 minutes and extra-time failed to produce a goal.
In the other semifinal goals from defender Shohei Ikeda, midfielder Keita Suzuki and striker Satoshi Nakayama wrapped up Japan’s win over Peter Withe’s plucky Thailand.
On the track, Sri Lankan favorite Susanthika Jayasinghe, the Olympic bronze medalist, was unable to score a sprint double after winning the 100 meters on Tuesday because she pulled out after feeling a twinge in her hamstring in the warm-up for the 200.
Compatriot Damayanthi Darsha helped make up for Jayasinghe’s absence by winning the 400 gold in a Games record as she denied India’s K M Beenamol a double success. Men’s top seeds Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand and Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea easily advanced to the tennis singles semifinals.
The Thai will face will face Uzbekistan’s Oleg Ogorodov, while Lee takes on third seed Takao Suzuki of Japan.
In the women’s singles semifinals, Thailand’s top-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn and second seed Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan won their matches to set up a showdown for the gold medal at Geumjeong tennis stadium on Friday.
In archery, a sport South Korea had dominated before setbacks in Pusan that gave the men’s individual title to Japan and the women’s to Taiwan, the hosts redeemed themselves by taking golds in the men’s and women’s team events. The four-woman archery team of Yun Mi-jin, Kim Mun-joung, Park Hye-youn and Park Sung-hyun beat Taiwan 246-226. The men beat Taiwan 245-238.
