UAE long-distance runner Alia Saeed has missed out on a medal at the Rio Olympics, placing 23rd in a record-breaking 10,000 metres final on Friday.
The Ethiopia-born Emirati, the reigning Asian champion, ran a time of 31 minutes, 56.74 seconds at the Olympic Stadium, but was well behind eventual winner Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, who finished in 29:17:45 to set a new world record. The previous mark was 29:31:78.
Kenya’s Vivan Cheruiyot took silver, while Ethopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, a double Olympic champion, claimed bronze. Cheruiyot ran the third fastest time in history, but could simply not contend with Ayana.
The first track final of this month’s Games, the race was run at a relentless pace, with Ayana making the bold decision to split from the group with 12 laps of the 25-lap event remaining.
Saeed, who took gold for the UAE at the 2014 Asian Games and the 2015 Asian Championships, struggled to stay alongside the leaders from early in the race. She had been considered the UAE’s best hope of a track medal.
The Emirates have another opportunity to come, though, with Betlhem Desaleyn scheduled to compete in the 1,500m in the early ours of Saturday, UAE time.
– John McAuley
Swimmer finishes third in heat
The UAE’s Nada Al Bedwawi finished third out of four in the first heat of the 50m freestyle.
Al Bedwawi finished in a time of 33.42 seconds, just over three seconds off the pace of the winner of the heat Ei Ei Thet of Myanmar, who won in 30.25 seconds. Fatema Al Mahmeed of Bahrain finished second.
She has already made history by becoming the first female swimmer to represent the UAE at the Olympics. Last year she became the first to represent the country at the World Championships.
Al Bedwawi, 19, was the UAE’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Rio last week. Though she was excited by the prospect of competing in Rio when she found out a few months ago, she has said that the Tokyo Games of 2020 are her real target.
– Osman Samiuddin
Shooters on Saturday
Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum and Saif bin Futtais will be battling with their backs to the wall when they resume their men’s skeet qualifying rounds after struggling to hit the high notes in the first three rounds of qualifying on Saturday.
Sheikh Saeed finished the first day of qualifying in 14th position with an aggregate of 70 following rounds of 23, 24, and 23 in difficult conditions, while Bin Futtais is in 24th position with a total of 68 after opening with a round of 21 before getting his scores up to 23 and 24 in the following rounds.
Sweden’s Marcus Svensson is at the top with a perfect score of 75 in three 25-shot rounds, while Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Rashidi, participating under the IOA flag since his country is banned, is second on 74, followed by Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba.
The qualifying will resume at 4.30pm UAE time with two more rounds of 25 shots each following which the top six shooters will progress to the semi-finals.
So both Sheikh Saeed and Bin Futtais, who qualified for Rio by winning the skeet gold at the 2015 Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca and followed it up with another gold at the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition in January, have their tasks cut out.
– Ahmed Rizvi
sports@thenational.ae
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