Abakar in 400m final; handball, basketball 3x3 teams win

Qatar’s handball and 3x3 basketball teams continued their winning spree at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday, while Ismail Abakar qualified for the men’s 400 metres final.
The handball stars look in good form to defend their gold medal from 2018 Jakarta Asiad as they thrashed Kazakhstan 46-13 at the Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre. It was Al Annabi’s third straight win after their victories over Hong Kong and South Korea. Qatar will take on China today before their third and final main round match against Japan tomorrow as they seek a place in the semi-finals.
The 3x3 basketball team cruised into the quarter-finals after a 21-5 rout of Cambodia in the Round Robin Pool D match. It was the hooper’s fourth straight win as they had earlier beaten Kazakhstan 19-11, Thailand 16-12 and Kyrgyzstan 21-5. In the quarter-finals today, Qatar will meet the winner of the tie between Japan and Macau.
Meanwhile, the athletics action kicked off on Friday as Ismail Abakar sealed his place in the final of the 400 metres final after clocking a personal best time of 46.03 secs in the first heat on Friday. While Abakar missed out on automatic qualification as he finished third in his heat, he made it to today’s eight-man final as one of the two fastest qualifiers outside the heats. However, there was no such luck for Ashraf Osman after he finished fourth in his heat with a time of 46.82.
Also on Friday, former Asian champion Femi Ogunode booked his place in the semi-finals of the men’s 100 meters after clocking 10.24 secs to finish second in his heat. Ogunode’s time was fifth fastest among 42 sprinters who took part in yesterday.
The shooting contingent, which has given Qatar three of its four medals so far, drew blank on Friday. In the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Ali Al-Muhannadi failed to advance into the final after finishing 29th in the qualifications with a total score of 574, while Nasra Mohamud was 51st in the 10m air pistol women’s after a score of 549.
The swimming event of the Hangzhou Games concluded on Friday with none of the Qatari swimmers – Abdalla al-Khaldi (men’s 50m breastroke and 400m freestyle), Abdalla El Ghamry (men’s 200m backstroke), Diab Ahmed (men’s 400m freestyle), Ismail Mohamed and Tameem ElHamayda (men’s 200m butterfly) advancing into the finals. In the men’s triathlon, Qatar’s Salman al-Farsi and Tamim al-Kuwari failed to finish the race.
Today, apart from Abakar, three other Qatari athletes are in action in the finals at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium. In the men’s hammer throw, Ashraf Elseify and Ahmed Elsify are in contention for medals, while Seifeldin Abdelsalam will take part in the men’s pole vault final.
Abdirahman Hassan and Mohamed Algarni will also be in action in the men’s 1500m heat today.