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By Elshadai Negash
Doha, QATAR -- Daham Najem Bashir’s last-gasp effort in the men’s 1500m gave Qatar their second middle and long distance running gold of the day to highlight Sunday’s action at the i5th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.
Earlier in the day, the home nation’s Mubarak Hasan Shami was a commanding winner of the men’s marathon.
Earlier this season, Bahrain’s world 1500m champion Rashid Ramzi lowered his lifetime best in the event to 3:29.16 at Rome’s Golden Gala Golden League meeting in July. And tonight at Khalifa Stadium, the 26-year-old Moroccan native had his sights set on adding the Asian Games title to his medal cabinet when he hit the front with 300m remaining. Compatriot Belal Ali Mansoor clawed his way back into the lead as the runners entered the home straight. But while the Bahraini duo were busy watching each other, Qatar’s Bashir cut inside to first pass Ramzi and then draw level with Mansoor right at the finish line.
Mansoor raised his arms thinking that he had won the race, but when the official results were flashed out on the stadium screen, he collapsed on the floor in agony, while Bashir celebrated a well-deserved victory.
“I was prepared for any medal, but gold is great,” said Bashir. “My coach had told me to take off at 500m and I tried to follow his advice. But when the other runners passed me, I reacted very fast.”
There were no surprises in the men’s marathon as Qatar’s former world half marathon championship silver medallist Mubarak Hasan Shami took control of the race as early as the 15km and raced away to victory in 2:12:44.
Bahrain’s Khalid Kamal Yassin sneaked the silver medal from Japan’s Satoshi Osaki right at the finish line as both runners were credited with the same finishing time of 2:15:36.
"I broke away because everybody else in the race was running very slow,” confirmed Shami after his solo run. “The chase pack today was much too slow. That made my gold medal much easier to get. The heat was not so bad. The humidity was very bad though. That made it harder to run."
The action continues on Monday with the women’s 5000m and the men’s 800m.
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