Abu Dhabi (Aletihad)
Mohammed Othman has given the UAE a fighting hope of a medal in athletics at the Paris Paralympics on Sunday when he qualified to the men’s 100-metre T34 wheelchair final.
The UAE’s hopes from shooting, the other main source of medal in Paris, slipped away too on the day and it was the youngest member in the UAE contingent, Othman, 20, who managed to sneak into the finals from the first heat.
The 20-year-old athlete from the Dubai Club for People of Determination, making his Paralympics debut, managed to cross the line in 15.77 seconds for fourth place in the first of the two heats and will have to roll up his sleeves now that his initial nerves have hopefully settled.
The second heat saw pretty sharp timings being clocked. Multiple Paralympic medal winner and the 100m world record holder Walid Ktila of Tunisia could only manage a second place behind Thailand’s Chaiwat Rattana, who sizzled away with a Paralympic record time of 14.81s. Austin Smeenk of Canada won the first heat in a time of 15.38 seconds.
Meanwhile, Saif Al Nuaimi and Obaid Al Dahmani failed to qualify for the medal round in the mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 category. Al Nuaimi finished 22nd with a score of 629.8 while Al Dahmani (627.1) was placed 29th.
In the SH2 division among the women, Ayesha Al Mehairi and Ayesh Al Shamsi finished 34th and 37th.