Moukhled Al-Otaibi wins Asian Games 10,000m (© Gray Mortimore)
He looked lost inside the huge interview room, a lean, small-built youngster, who grinned occasionally as the questions were put to him.
Moukhled Al-Otaibi seemed to comprehend the gist of those questions in English, but sought the help of team officials to reply in Arabic. He had just won the 10,000 metres gold in Busan, defeating, among others the favourite, Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama of Qatar. The Asian Games track and field programme had started with an upset.
Three days later, Al-Otaibi would win the 5000 metres too, to make it one of the most stunning doubles in Asian competitions, much against expectations. From an unknown young lad, whose best at the senior Asian level until then had been a fourth place in this year’s Asian championships, Al-Otaibi had become a star in his own right, achieving a rare feat.
The Saudi Arabian athletics team exceeded all expectations by winning seven gold medals in Busan, and all future recollections of those feats will be crowned by the memories of Al-Otaibi double. Both wins were scored against higher-ranked opponents, and won with a fair measure of comfort.
Not many knew or even remembered that Al-Otaibi had won the gold in the 10,000m and the silver in the 5000m at the 1999 Asian Junior Championships at Singapore. But then, winning at the Asian juniors and translating that potential to the senior level at the Asian Games, are normally two entirely different propositions.
In his younger days, Al-Otaibi has been a good gymnast. He was a specialist in floor exercises. In fact he was Saudi Arabian school's champion in floor exercises.
At the age of 16, he shifted his attention towards athletics. And in 1996, at the Arab championships he won the junior cross-country title. His rise since then has been rapid.
Still, when Al-Otaibi started with 12 others in the 10,000m on the opening day of the Asian Games athletics programme in Busan, he definitely was not one of the favourites. Warsama was there, along with Japanese Tomoo Tsubota and Astushi Sato. Even Al-Otaibi’s own Saudi team-mate, Alayan Sultan Al-Qahtani, making a comeback, was better known and rated, and Bahrain’s Abdulhak Zakaria was capable of pulling off an upset.
Yet when it came to the finishing straight, it was Al-Otaibi who was the master. He had so much in reserve that he could look back several times, wave to his team-mates in the stands, blow kisses, and still finish comfortably ahead of Warsama, 28:41.89 to 28:43.53. Zakaria came a distant third.
“He was too good this day,” said a disappointed Warsama. “Sport is like that”, the Qatari said about the surprise `kick’ that Al-Otaibi produced in the home straight to beat him.
The Saudi’s final attack was also late and precise in the 5000m.
“I was ready for any kind of race,” said Al-Otaibi later. “Whatever type of race it was, I was prepared for a fast finish,” said the 22-year-old Saudi Arabian.
As Al-Otaibi kicked, 80 metres out from the finish, Khamis Abdullah went through the motions of a response and found that he had very little left. The Qatari, having won the Asian championships in Colombo, and having beaten Al-Otaibi at the West Asian Games earlier in the season, might have been the favourite, but in the end, as he struggled towards the line, almost stopping, Abdullah was beaten to the silver by Abdulhak Zakaria.
“I knew the key man was the Qatari,” said Al-Otaibi. “I succeeded in my attempts to take care of him,” the Saudi added, pointing out his effort on the back straight when he had started leaving Abdullah behind. He clocked 13:41.48, Zakaria had 13:43.82 and Abdullah 13:44.42.
Though he has an American coach, Al-Otaibi says he follows the pattern of the Moroccans and the Algerians in his training methods. Being from Al-Taif in Saudi Arabia, which has an altitude going up to 2500 metres, he concedes he has had the advantage of running at altitude from a young age.
An armyman, like many of the athletes from West Asian countries, Al-Otaibi will be richer by about 80,000 dollars, perhaps more, from the two gold medals he won at Busan. More than that he can hope to become a big a star, like steeplechaser Saad Shaddad Al-Asmari, the kingdom’s first world-class athlete, who incidentally, could not make it to Busan, because of an injury suffered during the final fortnight of his preparations.
“I am in this sport for the love of it,” said Al-Otaibi, with a childish smile. “What will I do with the money? I plan to give some of it back to the sport itself.”
A most noble thought from a straightforward man, who now joins three other Asian men, S. L. Rosa of Sri Lanka (1970), Hari Chand of India (1978) and Toshinari Takaoka of Japan (1994) as the only athletes to have scored distance doubles in the Asian Games.
from an IAAF Correspondent
