Yaqoob bows out at semis

Manama : Bahrain’s Salem Eid Yaqoob clocked a time of 20.43 seconds and a new national record in the 400 metres men’s semi-finals yesterday as he finished fifth at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Racing in heat 2, Yaqoob started in lane 3 and was seventh placed going onto the straight to the finish line and finishing fifth, behind the two automatic qualifiers and two-time defending gold medallist Usain Bolt of Jamaica in 19.78 seconds and second placed Andrew De Grasse (Canada, 19.80), with Yaqoob 18th of 24 runners over the three heats.

The two other qualifiers for this morning’s final  at 4.30am from the same heat were Adam Gemili (Great Britain, 20.08) and Ramil Galiyev (Turkey, 20.09).

Sixth to eighth places went to Ameer Webb (United States, 20.43), Ejowvokoghene Odudura, 20.59) and Roberto Skyers (Cuba, 20.60). Qualifiers from heat 1 were LaShawn Merrit (United States, 19.94) and Christophe Lemaitre (France, 20.01) and heat 3 they were Alonso Edward (Panama, 20.07) and Churandy Martina (Netherlands, 20.10).

Bahrain with an historic first gold medal thanks to Ruth Jebete in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase and also historically another first with a silver medal in the women’s marathon still have a chance for further glory.