Astana: Qatari middle distance runner Mohammed Al Qarni yesterday clinched the gold medal in the 3,000m final while pole vaulter Saif Hamida won the silver medal as Qatari athletes continued to impress at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Al Qarni stopped the clock at 07:55.25 at the Kazakhstan Sports Palace on the final day of the Championships which saw ath-letes from 30 nations in action.
Earlier, on Saturday, sprinter Ammar Ismael won Qatar's first goal medal when he won the 400m final with a time of 46.25 seconds.Meanwhile, Al Qarni also won the silver medal in the 1500m race while his teammate Musaab Adam won the bronze in the same event.
Apart from them, Femi Ogunode, Musab Balla, Abdul-rahman Saeed, Saeed Zamzoum, Hussein Ibrahim and Ismael Daod also took part in the track and field events.
President of the Asian Athletics Association, Dahlan Al Hamad, expressed his happiness with success of the 10th edition of the Championships, and said that the championship witnessed a record participation of male and female Asian athletes, and rep-resents Kazakhstan’s keenness to develop athletics and spread the culture of the game which coincides with the principles of the Asian Athletics Federation.
He also congratulated Qatar Athletics on winning the medals.