Mohamed Hammadi’s valiant effort in men’s T34 800m final fell slightly short of a gold medal, but the UAE star added to his medal’s haul by winning the silver on Monday night at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha.
Hammadi, a former world champion and double Paralympic medallist, took bronze in the 400m Saturday night, and then said he wanted to win the silver.
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He got the colour right in the 800m, but the gold proved elusive by 0.3 seconds as he finished second in 1 minute 46.01 seconds.
Tunisia’s Walic Ktila, who has been in rampant form this season, took the gold in a championship record time of 1:45.71, but he had to fight tooth and nail against Hammadi for that honour.
Ktila had already won gold in the 400m T34 and is still to compete in the 100m and 200m with hopes of matching his four golds at the Lyon 2013 World Championships.
Finland’s Henry Manni, who had managed to deny Hammadi the silver in 400m, had his position in the podium reversed, taking the bronze in 1:46.92.
Hammadi was satisfied with his performance and said: “It was a good race and quite fast.
“I kept a strong pace from the start because I needed to get in a good position due to me being in the seventh lane.”
Line up for the men’s 800m T34 including #one2watch Walid Ktile #doha2015 pic.twitter.com/uDNASuR0oP
— IPC Athletics (@IPCAthletics) October 26, 2015
Ktila said: “I’m happy to be here. I felt like I was a good ambassador for my country and I worked hard all season and these efforts are bearing fruit now.”
Hammadi next takes part in the T34 100m, with his heat scheduled for 7:05pm UAE time.
In men’s T54 100m heats, Salem Al Shehhi bowed out with a timing of 14.98s. China’s Yanfens Cui (14.34s) and Thailand’s Saichon Konjen (14.39s) qualified from Al Shehhi’s race.
In the men’s shot put F33 final, the UAE duo of Abdul Al Shekaili and Hassan Malaleih finished seventh and eighth with best throws of 7.7 meters and 7.12m respectively. Russia’s Evgeni Malykh took the gold with a supreme effort of 12.36m.
Four world records were broken in action on Monday night.
In men’s club throw F32 final, Russia’s Vladislav Frolov’s threw 35.94m, while in men’s shot put F34 final, Iran’s Farajza Saleh set a new mark of 11.52m.
In men’s triple jump T47 final, China’s Liu Fuliang made a leap of 15.29m, while the final world mark of the night was set in the men’s javelin throw F13, when Croatia’s Branimir Budetic threw 65.72m, 5.75m past Iran’s silver medal winner Liravi Hosseini.
