Doha, Qatar - Despite some high profile withdrawals, the Athletics programme of the 15th Asian Games will showcase some of the continent’s finest athletes when competition gets under way on Thursday 7 December. The six-day schedule concludes on Tuesday 12 December.

The following preview is based upon entry information as supplied by the local organising committee DACOG on 1 Dec 2006

No Shaheen, Murofushi, Xing 

Just a week before the start of the athletics events, organizers were dealt a triple blow when it was announced that Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen, Japan’s Olympic Hammer Throw champion Koji Murofushi, and China’s Olympic women’s 10,000m champion Xing Huina would not be taking part.

Of the three, Shaheen’s withdrawal was the hardest blow. In addition to being the official poster boy of these Games, “the Golden Falcon of Qatar” is the continent’s most famous athlete having won two World 3000m Steeplechase titles and being the World record holder for the distance.

His absence removes the aura of predictability from the men’s 3000m steeplechase. Compatriot Jamal Bilal Salem, third fastest Asian steeplechaser in the world this year, will try his best to ensure the gold medal for this discipline remains at home. But the outstanding favourite will be Bahraini Tareq Mubarak Taher (the former Kenyan Dennis Kipkirui Keter) who with a national record of 8:11.36 is very much the cream of the field.

Unstoppable Xiang?

With Shaheen not competing, China’s Olympic 110m Hurdles champion Liu Xiang is the only World record holder competing in Doha and, on paper at least, he should have little trouble defending the title he won four years ago in Busan, South Korea.

This summer the 23-year-old Shanghai native captured the World record outright, having shared the record at 12.91 with Britain’s Colin Jackson (original record set in 1993) since winning the Olympic title in 2004. His 12.88 second run in Lausanne in July makes him the outstanding favourite for the sprint hurdles.

But do not totally discount China’s second string Shi Dongpeng (13.29 PB), who was a World Championship finalist in 2003, or Japan’s Masato Naito (13.49 PB), the winner of the Yokohama Grand Prix meet in September, who are likely to be ‘the best of the rest’.

Ramzi to contest a remarkable treble

Bahrain’s reigning 800m / 1500m World champion Rashid Ramzi will be among those runners who hope to use Doha as a springboard to the 2007 season and create a piece of Games history in the process.

The 26-year-old caught everyone by surprise last year when he won the 800m and 1500m at the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland. He will again contest both events in Doha and in addition has made a decision to run at 5000m. He has not been at his world beating best this year, although he ran the season’s second fastest time for 1500m of 3:29.14 when finishing second behind Kenya’s Daniel Kipchirchir Komen in the Rome IAAF Golden League meet in July.

Challenging Ramzi over the 1500m will be his compatriot Ail Belal Mansoor, who finished seventh behind him in the 800m at the World Championships in Helsinki. The host nation’s hopes lay with Ali Abubaker Kamal who is a 1:46 / 3:36, 800 / 1500m runner.

Youssef Saad Kamel will be Ramzi’s leading challenger over the 800m. The son of Kenya’s Billy Konchellah, 1987 and 1991 World 800m champion, the 23-year-old has two sub 1:44 clockings to his name this season. He won the World Cup in Athens and was sixth in the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart. 

If one was looking for someone to steal glory from the Bahraini duo, look no further than Mohammad Al-Azemi. The Kuwaiti returns to Doha where in May he began a trio of major circuit victories which continued in Oslo and Turin, and he ended up the season with a best of 1:44.13 (national record) thanks to his fifth plave in July in the Athens Super Grand Prix. 

Jamal: woman of the Games?

Ramzi’s near equivalent in the women’s middle distance races could be Maryam Yusuf Jamal, who has targeted an 800m/1500m double in Doha.

The Ethiopian-born Bahraini will be the overwhelming favourite in both the 800m and 1500m. Over the two laps, China’s Liu Qing with 1:59 and 4:04 PBs for the two distances is her chief opponent. She is a seasoned international competitor having raced extensively in the US this year, taking a 800m win in Stanford and a good fourth place in her season’s quickest (2:00.33) in Eugene.

Japan’s World junior bronze medallist Yuriko Kobayashi will be Jamal’s biggest challenger in the 1500m.

Other expected highlights…

Sprints: Simpson is the leading name

In the sprints, all eyes will be on Jamaican-born Bahraini sprinter Brandon Simpson as he searches for his first two Asian Games titles over the 200m and 400m.

Simpson has been one of the continent’s brightest stars in a 400m event dominated by American Jeremy Wariner this season, but the 25-year-old will hope to profit from weaker competition in Doha. He will contend with the Japanese duo of Yuzo Kanemaru and Yuki Yamaguchi, the only two other runners apart from Simpson who are both running at the championships and have gone under 46 seconds for the 400m this season. Chinese runners Yang Yaozu (20.54 national record) and Pang Guibin will be two of the main medal contenders in the 200m.

Distance Events: Shami’s time to deliver

Qatar’s 2005 World Half Marathon silver medallist Mubarak Hassan Shami is the runner with the big championship pedigree in the men’s marathon. The Kenyan-born runner, who celebrated his 26th birthday on 2 December, is best remembered for his premature celebrations that cost him victory in the last edition of the World Half Marathon Championships in Edmonton, Canada. He is the national record holder for the Marathon with 2:09:22, a time which he set when winning in Venice in 2005.

Three runners in the marathon start list have run faster than Shami’s best of 2006 (2:11:11), with Japan’s Satoshi Irifune the fastest (2:10:47). Compatriot Satoshi Osaki (2:10:49; PB of 2:08:46 in 2004), and China’s Deng Haiyang (2:10.50) will also be pushing for the medals.

Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi will double over the 5000m and 10,000m and looks a safe bet for gold in both events. China’s World junior 5000m champion Xue Fei will carry her biggest threat at that distance, while another Japanese Hiromi Ominami will be a prominent contender over 10,000m

As always, Japanese women will overwhelming top the bill in the women’s marathon, with Kayoko Obata (2:25:52) and Kiyoko Shimahara (2:26:47) hoping for a famous 1-2.

Field Events: Huang, the standout name

China’s World Junior High Jump champion Huang Haiqiang was hailed as one of the stars of the future when he cleared 2.32m to win the title at the World Juniors in Beijing in August. The affable 18-year old’s clearance on home soil was just one centimetre short of the Asian junior record held by his role model Jianhua Zhu.

A high quality field of challengers is led by Japan’s Naoyuki Daigo, who has a season's best and national record of 2.33m.

Combined Events: Karpov to go one better?

Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Karpov, the 2003 World and 2004 Olympic bronze medallist in the Decathlon, won the Asian Games silver medal four years ago and hopes to go one better this time around. His main challenge is expected to come from China’s defending champion Haifeng Qi, and home boy Ahmed Hassan Moussa, the bronze medallist in Busan 2002. 

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF 

NB. This preview is based upon entry information as supplied by DACOG on 1 Dec 2006