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Asian sprint great says the performance levels of young Qatari athletes at upcoming Doha Diamond League will be higher
Vinay Nayudu
Doha
The performance standards of present generation of Qatari athletes are going higher, according to Talal Mansour, the former Doha-born athlete who once rocked the world with his sprinting prowess.
Talal Mansour, who has been a 100 and 200m gold medal winner at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, and 100m gold winner at the 1986 Seoul and 1990 Beijing Asian Games, was speaking at the pre-event media conference for the Doha Diamond League to be held at the Qatar Sports Club stadium on May 5.
The annual international athletics event is a big draw in terms of both the world stars who descend in this part of the world and the spectator interest. The meet also showcases the upcoming Qatari talent who compete alongside the world's best.
The tall and ramrod straight Talal Mansour said while Qatar has a lot of young athletes coming up in various disciplines, he sees Ashraf Elseify (hammer throw) and middle-distance runner Abdulrahman Samba as special talents."These two athletes should do very well in the future," he said.
Mansour also had praise for Qatar's 100m and 100mx4 relay woman sprinter Mariam Farid and Ahmed Budir (400m hurdles).
"I have seen Mariam during training at the Aspire Academy and I would like to see her improve with her participation at the Doha Diamond League. Budir has been doing well and should touch new highs," said the legend of the athletes.
Explaining how an athlete should prepare and have self belief, Mansour spoke of his own days when competing in Japan."When I was there, they would fear to see me on the track. An athlete's preparation should be such that they should invoke doubts in the minds of other competing athletes with their abilities," he told the aspiring Qatar athletes.
In reply, the 19-year-old Mariam said,"It's a matter of pride for me to hear a respected athlete like Talal Mansour speak about me. I take this as an inspiration and will prepare to the best of my abilities in representing Qatar and try and do well," she said.
On the question of Qatar sourcing its athletes, Mansour hit back saying the athletes are allowed to represent Qatar only as per the international athletic federation's laws and after they spend a lot of time in this country."It is not that we source them straight. They naturalise by being here and have spent a lot of time training for years before making the grade," he stressed.
Team Qatar will compete with a strong 13-athlete line-up at the opening leg of the 14-leg IAAF Diamond League which includes up and coming stars as well as experienced Olympians.
For Qatar's two-time Olympic medallist Mutaz Barshim the Doha Diamond League will provide an opportunity to see his form coming out of winter training in front of his home crowd.
Barshim jumped just two centimetres short of the world-record in 2014 and will no doubt have his sights firmly set on Javier Sotomayer's 24-year-old world-record in the 2017 season, as well as the Worlds Championship gold medal in August.
Femi Ogunode, who recently set the world lead in the 100m with 9.82 seconds in the Emir Athletics Cup in Doha on the 25th April, will lead Team Qatar's track team along with his younger brother Tosin Ogunode (100m), Mohammed Nasir Abbas (400m), as well as Qatar's Youth Olympic silver medallist Hamza Driouch (1,500m).
Qatar's track sensation Abdulrahman Samba, together with team-mate Mohamed Shaib will compete against some of the fastest athletes in the world in the 400m hurdles event. The twenty-two year-old Samba, cruised to victory in the Sasol-NWU International meeting South Africa this March with 48.31 seconds.
Qatar's young Olympian and Aspire Academy graduate, 21-year-old Ahmed Budir will be looking to continue his solid progress in the sport in a competition that features the Rio Olympics gold and silver medallists, Thomas Rohler and Julius Yego. Budir set a personal best of 84.74 to qualify for Rio 2016 and has already qualified to the London 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
