Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar’s Seif Hemeida (Seifeddine Mohamed Abdessalem) continued his fine form in pole vault with another gold medal and a championship record, as he also broke his own national record, on the opening day of the four-day 20th Asian Under-20 Athletics Championships in the South Korean city of Yecheon on Sunday.
The 18-year-old Aspire Academy athlete, who is coached by Qatar Athletics Federation’s Pawel Szczyrba, dominated the event claiming the title thanks to his first-time clearance at 5.25m but he decided to continue and eventually cleared 5.50m.
Earlier Hemeida had cleared 4.80m, 5.00m, 5.10, 5.20m and 5.25m on his first attempts, which proved to be enough for him to win the gold medal as China’s Liu Rui failed his three efforts at 5.25m.
The event ended up being a straight battle between Hemeida and China’s Liu Rui after two Japanese athletes both registered three failures each at 5.15m.
His height of 5.50m means that he added 15cm to his previous Qatar national record, which he had cleared to win silver at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in February.
The victory is further testimony to the strength of the partnership between the Qatar Athletics Federation and Aspire and the support of Qatar Sports Club.
Hemeida’s leap in South Korea put him joint 2nd on this year’s world under-20 rankings (1st = 5.61) and 85th on the all-time world under-20 list as of today.
The victory for Hemeida in South Korea comes just two weeks after he won gold for Qatar at the first-ever Arab Under-23 Athletics Championships in Tunisia. He also won gold at the West Asian Athletics Championships in Doha in April.
Also in action for Qatar on the first day of the competition was Aspire sprinter Amir Muhammad but was unable to progress into the final.
There was a second gold for Qatar as well as Ismail Doudai won the men’s 400m event.
Two other Academy student-athletes are set to compete at the championships with Mahamat Abdrahman in 400m hurdles and Nayef Al Rashidi in 110m hurdles, which will also feature part-time Aspire athlete Oumar Doudai.
