Qatar’s Samba eyes medal in 400m hurdles
Paris: Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba will carry the big hopes of providing the nation with a first medal at the Paris Olympics on Friday when he competes in the men’s 400m hurdles final at Stade de France at 10.45pm Doha Time.
The two-time Asian Games champion and 2019 World Championships bronze medallist has been confident throughout of not just qualifying for the final but also winning a medal. Samba had finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
In the semi-final, Samba appeared to have clipped one of the hurdles which slowed him down a bit but he held on to qualifying for the final as one of the two fastest finishers, clocking 48.20 secs.
The 28-year-old has had a season’s best time of 47.97secs and a personal best of 46.98secs. He would surely need to push more on that to make his dream of maiden Olympic podium come true.
But Samba has been focused. “Good preparation for the semi-final is crucial to achieve my goal of winning a medal. I hope to achieve the desired goal,” he had said prior to the semis.
Samba will be facing a fearsome field which includes world record-holder Karsten Warholm – in a fight to retain his title as he goes up against Rai Benjamin, the Tokyo silver medallist who sits second on the world all-time list, and 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos, who claimed bronze in Tokyo and is third fastest in history.
Benjamin is the world leader following the 46.46 he registered at the US trials, ahead of Dos Santos, who set his fastest time of the year so far of 46.63 when beating Warholm with 46.70 in Oslo.
Between them they have the 17 fastest performances of all time and 24 of the top 25. Warholm had set a world record of 45.94 in Tokyo and would seek an encore.
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