JEDDAH, 31 August 2007 -— Mohammed Al-Salihi, the last man standing and Saudi Arabia’s last chance to save the 10-man team from a medal shutout, yesterday qualified for the men’s 800 meters semifinal in the 11th World Athletics Championship in Osaka, Japan.
Al-Salihi managed to top heat 5 and qualified for today’s semifinal after clocking 1:45.58.
Al-Salihi’s time was way off his best record this year of 1:44.88.
“I managed to qualify for the semifinal without any difficulty. I’m satisfied with my performance. I did not want to lose all my energy but now it gets tougher with these champions in the semifinal and I’m aiming at finishing in under 1:45 minutes hopefully and win something for my country,” Al-Salihi said after the race.
Six days into the competition Saudi Arabia have yet to win a medal of any color.
Long jumpers Ahmed Al-Marzoug and Hussain Al-Sabaa, who were both in action yesterday for the men’s long jump final, finished 8th and 11th with attempts of 7.98 and 7.84 meters respectively.
Al-Marzoug was suffering from muscle spasm during the warmup, ignored it and aggravated the injury so that he was no longer able to stand and had to be picked up by an ambulance, according to national team coach Masoud Bowohoush.
Of his misfortune, Al-Saba said, “I didn’t perform what I was expected to do and among the reasons was my absence from many friendly competitions before the world championship. It was a mistake and it was hard to keep up.”
