The relay team fell short of podium places on its finale debut as Samba’s bronze stands as Qatar’s only medal in Tokyo.
Abderrahman Samba’s bronze-winning performance remained the only medal for Qatar at the World Athletics Championships as the 4×400 metres relay side finished short of the podium on Sunday.
The quartet of Ammar Ismail, Bassem Hemeida, Ismail Abakar, and Samba finished fifth at the Tokyo National Stadium, clocking a combined time of 3:01.64, on the ultimate day of the competition.
Samba, who ran the last stretch, had won bronze on Friday at the same venue with his season-best timing of 47.06 seconds.
Then on Saturday, he guided the relay team — making its debut in the World Championships — to a place in the finals with a national record. Qatar finished second in the heat, behind South Africa, with a time of 3:00.15 minutes.
It was a continuation of the unit’s impressive performances in recent months, the highlight being the qualifying run of 3:00.29 minutes in the World Athletics Relays held in China’s Guangzhou in May.
Despite putting on an impressive performance by debutants’ standards, the quartet failed to improve in a rain-soaked race during the finals and finished behind gold-winning Botswana side, followed by the U.S., South Africa and Belgium.
Ismail, who bowed out of the 400 metres in the singles category, clocked the team’s best timing at 45.04 seconds from the sixth lane. The trio of 400-metre hurdlers then followed, with Hemeida finishing his stretch in 45.81 seconds, followed by Abakar — the eight-place getter in singles’ finale — at 45.21 seconds, and Samba’s 45.58 seconds.
Other athletes in the Qatari contingent, who had bowed out of their respective events, included 800-metre runner Ibrahim Abass Chuot, 100-metre hurdler Oumar Doudai Abakar and young pole vaulter Seif Mohammed.
Mohammed had started Qatar’s campaign on a high, clearing the bar at 5.75 metres, to set a new personal and national best, which extended to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and West Asian records, according to the Qatar Olympic Committee. He eventually finished ninth in the finale the day after.
Sprinter and reigning Asian champion Ismail then clocked a personal-best timing to qualify for the semis of the 400-metre sprint but failed to qualify for the finale.
While Chuot and Oumar Abakar failed to clear their respective competitions’ heats, Hemeida missed out on the final spot in the 400-metre hurdle after falling out of non-automatic qualification timing as well.
After star high jumper Mutaz Barshim pulled out on the eve of the championships due to delayed recovery, the medal hopes had come to rest on Samba, who delivered to hand Qatar’s solitary glory of the campaign.
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