He was Pakistan’s lone participant at the ANOC World Beach Games. And he didn’t disappoint his fans back home.
Mohamed Inam produced a scintillating performance to clinch the 90kg gold in beach wrestling, beating Georgia’s Dato Marsagishvili at Katara Beach Monday.
Inam lived up to his top billing as the two-time world beach wrestling champion by clinching a 5-2 win. He was dominant throughout as he won all his matches to top the Group A, before winning his semi-final and final bouts.
Inam is a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist (2010, 2018) in 84 and 86 kg freestyle and has received the Pride of Performance award from the government of Pakistan. He had qualified for the Qatar Beach Worlds after finishing as runner-up in a qualifying tournament in Rio, Brazil, in May.
In the semis, Inam recorded an easy 3-0 win over Pedro Jacinto Garcia Perez of Spain. His toughest bout was in the final, where Marsagishvili looked to pull off a shock result. The Georgian took a 2-0 lead with just a point more required to win gold, but Inam was not the one to give up so easily.
The Pakistani made it 2-2 with two throws, and with seconds remaining in the first period, produced a 3-point takedown to clinch a thrilling contest. Ahead of his trip to Doha, Inam had hoped to fulfil his dream of winning a gold medal at the World Beach Games, and he truly struck to his word.
“I trained very hard for this after missing the World Wrestling Championship in Kazakhstan last month. It was not easy but I was confident of winning gold at the World Beach Games. I have been training hard at home too, but training myself, and then also teaching and training other juniors at my gym is tough. I picked up an injury almost two months ago and underwent surgery,” Imam said.
Meanwhile, Spain enjoyed another golden double Monday after Kevin Vinuela and Francisca Tous won the men’s and women’s aquathlon events Monday.
In a physically challenging event, which consists a 2.5 kilometre run, a 750 metre swim and a second 2.5 kilometres on the pavement, the two Spaniards took the top honours.
Vinuela came home to win the men’s race in 26min 55sec, while Tous was a convincing winner of the women’s race in 29:38.
Belarus netted a full set of medals across the two Waterski Jump events, with a gold and bronze in the women’s and silver in the men’s.
After a disappointing showing in the preliminary event, finishing bottom of the six qualifying skiers, Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya rallied to produce a spectacular winning jump of 49.5m to claim the water ski jump gold at the Leqtafiya Lagoon.
Her compatriot, 2018 European silver medallist Hanna Straltsova, managed 49.0m on her third attempt, finishing third, with Jutta Menestrina of Finland also making the podium in second place after nailing a 49.3m jump.
The men’s bouldering gold was won by Japan's 20-year-old world bouldering champion Kai Harada with a total score of 3132 points at the Aspire. His Japanese teammate Keita Watabe took silver, while bronze went to Germany's Philipp Martin.
The women’s bouldering event was also won by a Japanese, with Miho Nonaka cruising to victory with a total tally of 4142 points. Switzerland’s Petra Klingler took silver, while Slovakia’s Urska Repusic bagged bronze.
Mohamed Inam produced a scintillating performance to clinch the 90kg gold in beach wrestling, beating Georgia’s Dato Marsagishvili at Katara Beach Monday.
Inam lived up to his top billing as the two-time world beach wrestling champion by clinching a 5-2 win. He was dominant throughout as he won all his matches to top the Group A, before winning his semi-final and final bouts.
Inam is a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist (2010, 2018) in 84 and 86 kg freestyle and has received the Pride of Performance award from the government of Pakistan. He had qualified for the Qatar Beach Worlds after finishing as runner-up in a qualifying tournament in Rio, Brazil, in May.
In the semis, Inam recorded an easy 3-0 win over Pedro Jacinto Garcia Perez of Spain. His toughest bout was in the final, where Marsagishvili looked to pull off a shock result. The Georgian took a 2-0 lead with just a point more required to win gold, but Inam was not the one to give up so easily.
The Pakistani made it 2-2 with two throws, and with seconds remaining in the first period, produced a 3-point takedown to clinch a thrilling contest. Ahead of his trip to Doha, Inam had hoped to fulfil his dream of winning a gold medal at the World Beach Games, and he truly struck to his word.
“I trained very hard for this after missing the World Wrestling Championship in Kazakhstan last month. It was not easy but I was confident of winning gold at the World Beach Games. I have been training hard at home too, but training myself, and then also teaching and training other juniors at my gym is tough. I picked up an injury almost two months ago and underwent surgery,” Imam said.
Gold, silver and bronze medal winners in Aquathlon (Women) at Katara Beach
Winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals (Men) in Aquathlon at Katara Beach
In a physically challenging event, which consists a 2.5 kilometre run, a 750 metre swim and a second 2.5 kilometres on the pavement, the two Spaniards took the top honours.
Vinuela came home to win the men’s race in 26min 55sec, while Tous was a convincing winner of the women’s race in 29:38.
Belarus netted a full set of medals across the two Waterski Jump events, with a gold and bronze in the women’s and silver in the men’s.
After a disappointing showing in the preliminary event, finishing bottom of the six qualifying skiers, Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya rallied to produce a spectacular winning jump of 49.5m to claim the water ski jump gold at the Leqtafiya Lagoon.
Her compatriot, 2018 European silver medallist Hanna Straltsova, managed 49.0m on her third attempt, finishing third, with Jutta Menestrina of Finland also making the podium in second place after nailing a 49.3m jump.
The men’s bouldering gold was won by Japan's 20-year-old world bouldering champion Kai Harada with a total score of 3132 points at the Aspire. His Japanese teammate Keita Watabe took silver, while bronze went to Germany's Philipp Martin.
The women’s bouldering event was also won by a Japanese, with Miho Nonaka cruising to victory with a total tally of 4142 points. Switzerland’s Petra Klingler took silver, while Slovakia’s Urska Repusic bagged bronze.