Barakat narrowly misses out on a medal in Asian Indoor Games

The star sprinter, a two-time Olympian who won 60m gold in the 2016 Asian Beach Games, was one of Oman’s medal hopes but he finished fourth in the 60m final after a hectic day for sprinters

MUSCAT: It was another disappointing day for Oman in the ongoing ongoing Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games with star sprinter Barakat Al Harthi narrowly missing out on a medal in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Monday. The star sprinter, a two-time Olympian who won 60m gold in the 2016 Asian Beach Games, was one of Oman’s medal hopes but he finished fourth in the 60m final after a hectic day for sprinters.

Barakat began the day well topping Round 1 Heat 6 in a time of 6.80 seconds.

Later in the second semifinal race, Barakat in fact achieved his personal best time of 6.66 seconds to finish first and qualify for the final.

In the final, Barakat came up with an almost similar performance, clocking 6.67 seconds but finished fourth.

The event was won by Iran’s Hassan Taftian in 6.55 while his compatriot Reza Ghasemi (6.64) took bronze behind the Philippines’ Eric Shauwn Cray, who timed 6.63 for his silver medal.

Al Saadi finishes last

Earlier in the day, Oman’s Ahmed Mubarak Al Saadi finished last in the 400m final.

Al Saadi, who on Monday made it to the final despite finishing third in a semifinal thanks to the disqualification of another athlete, clocked 48.46 seconds.

The 400m gold went to Qatar’s Abdalelah Haroun Hassan (45.68) with Saudi Arabia’s Mazen Al Yasen (46.35) and Kazkhstan’s Litvin Michail (46.51) taking silver and bronze respectively.

Hopes in tennis

Now Oman’s only medal hope will be in tennis doubles competition where Fatma Al Nabhani and Sarah Al Balushi start their campaign on Thursday.

In the singles, the Omani challenge ended in the first round with Fatma Al Nabhani failing to clear the first hurdle, suffering a 6-3, 6-2 straight sets defeat at the hands of Thai girl Chompoothip Jundakate on Monday.

On Sunday, Maryam Al Balushi went down fighting to Fiji’s Ruby Coffin 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2) in her first round match.

It may be mentioned that Oman are taking part only in indoor athletics and indoor tennis at the 2017 Ashgabat Games.