Qatar’s al-Qarni clinches 3,000m gold

Qatari middle distance runner Mohamed al-Qarni yesterday clinched the gold medal in the 3,000m final to take team Qatar’s medal tally to four at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.Al-Qarni stopped the clock at 07:55.25 at the Kazakhstan Sports Palace on the final day of the Championships which saw athletes from 30 nations in action.On Saturday, sprinter Ammar Ismael won Qatar’s first goal medal when he won the 400m final with a time of 46.25 seconds.Meanwhile, al-Qarni also won the silver medal in the 1500m race while his teammate Musaab Adam won the bronze in the same event.Apart from the medal winners, seven other Qatari athletes – Femi Ogunode, Musab Balla, Abdulrahman Saeed, Saeed Zamzoum, Seif Abdulsalam, Hussein Ibrahim and Ismael Daod – took part in the track and field events.President of the Asian Athletics Association, Dahlan al-Hamad, expressed his happiness with success of the 10th edition of the Championships, and said that the championship witnessed a record participation of male and female Asian athletes, and represents Kazakhstan’s keenness to develop athletics and spread the culture of the game which coincides with the principles of the Asian Athletics Federation.