Yahya Saed Al-Kahes of Saudi Arabia (102) wins the Arab 100m championship (© Slim Gomri)
Tunis, TunisiaBahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the fastest in the world at 1500m this season, was the star of Day Two of the Arab Championships at the Rades Stadium (Fri 16).
Jamal, the former Ethiopian who now runs for Bahrain and was unfortunate to get bulked in the last 300m in the World Championships 1500m final in Helsinki, was a class apart in both the women’s 800m and 5000m yesterday. She took this remarkable double on the same day in Tunis, winning the women’s 800m in 2:09.73 and later on the 5000m in 16:53.25. The 21-year-old was followed home respectively by Sudan’s Emna Bakhit in 2:11.37 and Tunisia’s Safa Issaoui in 16:56.15.
Jamal who is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, has shown great versatility as a runner this year setting national records at 800m (1:59.69), 1500 (3:56.79), 3000 (8:28.87) and 5000 (14:51.68), and won the World Athletics Final at 1500m last weekend in Monaco.
Her compatriot Youssef Saad Kamel, the former Kenyan Gregory Konchellah, one of just two men to have run under 1:44 this year took the men’s 800m in 1:47.36.
Yahya Saed Al-Kahes, 19, the IAAF World Youth champion from Saudi Arabia, who recently won the Asian Championship in Korea, took an easy men’s 100m title win yesterday in an Arab Championship record of 10.28.
In a quality one lap duel, Sudan’s Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr, the Area Junior record holder (44.93) won the men‘s 400m in 45.66 followed home closely by Saudi Arabia’s Mohamed Abid Salhi (45.94), Tunisia’s Ridha Ghali, a slightly distant third (46.98).
An Arab Championship record was established in the women’s 10Km Walk by Algerian with Amzar Ghania clocking 49:33, while Mahmoudi Rahma arrived home second in 50:10, a Tunisian record in that discipline. Gold also went to Algeria in women’s 100m Hurdles, thanks to Naima Ben Tahar’s 14.27 effort.
The oddity of the day was seeing Yamile Aldama, the World Indoor Triple Jump silver medallist who was 4th outdoors in Helsinki this summer, who won the High Jump for Sudan in her season's best of 1.81m. Aldama has a PB of 1.85m. The 33-year-old former Cuban also won the Long Jump yesterday with a Sudanese national record (6.19m).
Slim Gomri for the IAAF
SELECTED RESULTS
MEN
100m
1 Yahya Saed Al-Kahes KSA 10.28
2 Mohamed Ali-Farhan BRN 10.46
3 Saad faraj Chahoueni QAT 10.56
400m
1 Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr SUD 45.66
2 Mohamed Al-Salhi KSA 45.94
3 Ghali Ridha TUN 46.98
800m
1 Youssef Kamel BRN 1.47.36
2 Salem El Badri QAT 1.48.38
3 Abubaker Kaki SUD 1.48.43
Pole Vault
1 Zaghouani Bechir TUN 5.00
Discus
1 Omar El-Ghazaly EGY 60.87
WOMEN
800m
1 Maryam Yusef Jamal BRN 2.09.73
2 Emna Bakhit SUD 2.11.37
3 Imene Jelled SYR 2.15.50
5000m
1 Maryam Yusef Jamal BRN 16.53.25
2 Issaoui Safa TUN 16.56.15
100m Hurdles
1 Naima Bentahar ALG 14.27
2 Fedwa El Boza SYR 14.38
3 Dhaouedi Sabra TUN 14.67
High Jump
1 Yamile Aldama SUD 1.81
Shot Put
1 Ben Khaled Amel TUN 15.36
10km Walk
1 Amzar Gania ALG 49.33
2 Mahmoudi Rahma TUN 50.10
Heptathlon
Mona Jabir Ahmed 4977pts
