JEDDAH, 3 September 2007 — Saudi Arabia’s last hope for a medal evaporated in thin air when the last man standing, Mohammed Al-Salihi, came 8th in the 800 meters final clocking 1:47.58 yesterday in the 11th World Athletics Championship in Osaka, Japan.
A disappointed Al-Salihi said, “I did what my coach and I agreed on and I followed the plan until the last minute. I was supposed to slow down in the beginning and speed up at the end but the pace of the race turned out to be different, unexpected and disappointing unfortunately.”
Of the nine Saudi athletes who made the Japan trip five managed to reach the final and three failed to advance past the qualifying round or semifinal. Hamdan Al-Bishi was among the nine, but withdrew on doctor’s order because of injury he sustained during the training camp abroad.
Al-Salihi was the last Saudi to stretch his campaign up until the final day of the event. Unfortunately, he wound up dead last in the race. Long jumpers Ahmed Al-Marzoug and Hussain Al-Sabaa both reached the final, where they finished 8th and 11th with jumps of 7.98 and 7.84 meters respectively. Sultan Al-Hibshi reached the final of the men’s shot put after throwing the iron ball to a distance of 19.20 meters in the qualifying round, but that was the farthest he could reach. Ali Al-Amri did not finish the 3,000 meters final.
Mohammed Shaween reached the 1,500 meters semifinals but failed to progress after clocking 3:41.58. Long jumper Mohammed Al-Khuwalidi failed to advance past the qualifying round with an attempt of 7.85 meters as did Yahya Habeeb, fastest man in the 15th Asian Games, in the qualifying heat of the men’s 100 meters with a time of 10.65 seconds.
