Hussein Taher Al-Sabee of Saudi Arabia defends Asian Games Long Jump title (© Getty Images)
Take a close look at the Athletics results from the 15th Asian Games which concluded last week, and beneath the expected dominant performance of the Chinese, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia once again put on a very encouraging performance.
When the six-day Athletics programme finished on Thursday 14 December the final medal count showed that following the table topping Chinese (14 gold, 9 silver, 8 bronze), came Bahrain (6, 5, 3) whose 14 medals relegated the Japanese (5, 9, 13) by virtue of one more gold to third place. But Japan could be pleased that their total of 27 podium spots was only four less than China’s overall medal haul.
While tiny Bahrain’s success as overall runner-up was astounding, albeit due to mainly imported talent, in fourth place on the medal standings stood the largely home grown talent of Saudi Arabia their giant neighbour just across the water of the Gulf of Bahrain.
In Busan, Korea in 2002, the Saudi delegation surprised by taking seven Asian Games gold medals (including a 5000m and 10,000m double for Moukhled Al-Outaibi), and four years later her five gold medal triumph indicates the success was no fluke.
Just twenty years before when the Asian Games had been held in Seoul, Korea, the entirely male squad of Saudi athletes had not achieved a single victory, in fact not a single medal. By contrast, while the team of 33 which represented the desert Kingdom in Doha this year remains an entirely male one, it is now a flourishing oasis of athletics talent.
With substantial financial assistance from the government, which supports a talent spotting programme, foreign coaching, and training camps abroad, Saudi Arabian success has been masterminded by USA coaching guru, John Smith, who among a host of great champions trained USA’s Maurice Greene to Olympic and World golds and World record breaking success. Noticeably, four of the five Saudi titles won in Doha were in sprinting/jumping disciplines - 100m, 400m, Long Jump and 4x400m.
However, the gap between continental and global competition remains huge. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia first entered competition at the World Championships in Athletics at the 1991 edition in Tokyo and since has just one bronze medal (Saad Al-Asmari, 3000m Steeplechase in 1995) to show for it. Significantly, there have been two editions of the championships since their seven gold medal Asian triumph in Busan, and in the 2005 World championships in Helsinki not one point was even scored.
At the Olympics the story is no better. Since a first entry at the 1972 Games in Munich, Saudi athletes have taken just one track medal, the silver of Haidi Al-Somaily at 400m Hurdles in Sydney.
There is little doubt that their Asian gold medallists in particular 400m runner Hamdan Al-Bishi, 24, 2001 World Junior champion and sixth at 2001 senior World champs, and long jumper Hussein Al-Sabee, 27, fifth at the 2003 World Champs, retain all that is required to become world beaters.
Yet the important question for the Kingdom’s athletic aspirations as a whole is other performers such as continental winners like sprinter Yahya Ibrahim Hassan, the 2003 World Youth Championships silver medallist, and shot putter Sultan Mubarak Al-Hebshi, succeed in inspiring a more general leap to global success in the next four years?
It is still too soon to say 'watchout world the Saudis are coming' but should this great leap forward occur then the development of Asia as an Athletics superpower will have acquired another useful dynamic which will energize the so far principally Chinese and Japanese powered spearhead.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
