UAE long distance runner Alia Saeed suffered a disappointing end to her hopes of a strong showing at the Athletics World Championships in Beijing as she failed to finish the women’s 10,000 metres final on Monday.
Saeed, 23, had been running near the front of the pack for much of the first half of the race, but after falling rapidly to the tail of the field, she stopped with the race three quarters finished.
Kenyan Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot went on to win.
Ahmed Al Kamali, president of the UAE Athletic Federation, was frustrated by the manner of Saeed’s exit but he assumed she had suffered a recurrence of an injury picked up in training.
“I’m finding it hard to justify why Alia would run nine excellent laps and then suddenly pull out of the race like that,” he said. “She had a minor injury earlier, about two or three weeks ago during the training camp. It’s probably a recurrence of that injury that forced her out.”
Al Kamali said Saeed’s preparations for the event had been strong, and that was why he was disheartened by her failure to make it to the finish.
“We had very high hopes that Alia would finish in the top eight. She was ready,” he said.
“Despite that small injury, all the signs were positive and we were not worried. But these things happen in athletics.”
On Sunday, fellow UAE female runner Bethlem Desaleyn failed in her mission to reach the final of the 1,500m after finishing 10th out of a field of 11.
The previous day she had finished fifth in her heat to progress to the semi-final, but a time of four minutes, 17.92 seconds was not enough to see her reach the final.
Al Kamali blamed poor tactics for her demise.
“Bethlem had run well to make the semi-finals,” he said of a race where she was timed at 4.05, “but in the second race she ran a bad tactical race.
“She got herself boxed in for a long time and failed to make the final.”
Desaleyn has a chance to bounce back tomorrow when she takes part in the 5,000m heats.
In Monday’s other action, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce sprinted to an unprecedented third women’s 100m world title.
Fraser-Pryce got off to a strong start and was never seriously threatened, winning in relative comfort in 10.76 seconds from Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, who took silver in a time of 10.81.
American Tori Bowie was third in 10.86.
Despite winning, Fraser-Pryce was not satisfied with her time and said: “I’m getting tired of 10.7s.
“I just want to put a good race together and hopefully in the next race I get the time I’m working for. I definitely think a 10.6 is there.”
Fraser-Pryce, who captured the world title in 2009 and 2013, will not try to repeat the 100-200m sprint double she achieved at Moscow two years ago.
“I am not considering the 200m. The plan has already been to only run the 100m,” she said of her schedule.
Ezekiel Kemboi underlined his status as one of the great Kenyan athletes by capturing the 3,000m steeplechase championship for a record fourth time.
Kemboi, 33, seized the gold medal thanks to a devastating sub-57-second last lap to finish ahead of compatriots Conseslus Kipruto and Brimin Kiprop.
In the pole vault final, Canada’s Shawnacy Barber prevailed on count-back to win the gold medal.
Barber, 21, managed a best of 5.90 metres, and his superior record in the earlier rounds of the competition ensuring that he edged out the defending champion Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany, who had cleared the same height.
* With agency
Follow us on twitter at @NatSportUAE
