FROM LEFT: Team Asia-Pacific’s Qatari athlete Abderrahman Samba, Australia’s Dani Stevens and her compatriot Jana Pittman pose for a photograph in Ostrava, on the eve of the IAAF Continental Cup yesterday.
Doha: Dominant Qatari hurdler Abderrahman Samba will be looking to shine under a different flag when a star cast of athletes representing Europe, Africa, Americas and Asia Pacific compete in the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic today and tomorrow.
Samba, along with his compatriot and the fastest 400m sprinter in Asia, Abdalelah Haroun, middle distarnce runner Jamal Hairane and hammer thrower Asian Games gold medallist Ashraf Elseify will compete for Asia Pacific team, highlighting Qatar’s presence during the two-day event.
“It’s my last race of the season so I’m going to do something big,” the 2018 Asian Games double gold medallist Samba told the IAAF website yesterday.
Samba, who has taken the world of one-lap hurdling by storm this year, will take on world champion Karsten Warholm and IAAF Diamond League winner Kyron McMaster on Sunday.
The event has provided some of the biggest highlights of this year’s IAAF Diamond League circuit and with the main protagonists all in action in Ostrava, more fireworks can be expected.
Samba became the second fastest man ever with his 46.98 in Paris. He has been unbeaten this season in eight finals, all of them under 48 seconds, including six IAAF Diamond League races and the Asian Games.
Warholm, who has set four Norwegian records this year, improved to 47.64 in winning the European Championships final. McMaster from British Virgin Islands has run even faster than Warholm with 47.54 in Paris and has three international titles to his name this year: the Commonwealth Games, Central American and Caribbean Games and NACAC Championships.
He comes to Ostrava fresh off another major win in the IAAF Diamond League final, where he finished just ahead of Warholm.
“I want to celebrate it tomorrow,” Samba, who turned 23 earlier this week, said.
“I always think about something big in races and I want to give myself a big present here.”
“Everything until now has been perfect, this will be my last race and I hope it will be great.”
To earn maximum points for the Asia-Pacific team, however, he will have to overcome McMaster and Warholm, but Samba plans to use their presence to push him to new heights.
“For sure, when you have strong athletes running together it will always be a good result,” he said.
In the men’s 400 metres, Qatar’s world bronze medallist Abdalelah Haroun is currently fourth on the 2018 world list thanks to his winning time of 44.07 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in London.
But the 21-year-old cannot afford to take anything for granted given the presence of his highly talented contemporary, Botswana’s Baboloki Thebe, who has run 44.54 this season and won the African title last month.
In hammer throw, Qatar’s Elseify who threw 76.88m in his gold winning attempt in Jakarta last month, will team up with Tajikistan’s 36-year-old Olympic champion and 2015 world silver medallist Dilshod Nazarov to challenge the European dominance.
Hairane will comete in the 800 meters in Ostrava along with his Asia-Pasific team-mate from India, Asian Games Silver medallist Jinson Johnson.
Each of the four teams competing in Ostrava has two athletes in the individual events and the competitors will claim points based on their finishing positions.
The winning team will be awarded with a unique trophy and each member of the team will receive part of the trophy. Shaped like an athletics track, the trophy is made in 116 sticks from Bohemian Crystal, symbolising relay batons.
