Doha, Qatar: Abderrahman Samba will spearhead Qatar’s charge in the men’s 400m hurdles, hoping to fulfill his “childhood dream” of winning an Olympic Games gold medal in Paris. With Bassem Hemeida and Ismail Doudai Abakar also qualifying, Qatar will become the first nation from Asia to participate in the discipline with three athletes in Olympics. The trio will hope to advance as heats are scheduled for Monday at Stade de France with Hemeida first to take the track followed by Samba (heat 2) and Abakar (heat 6).
The top three athletes from the heats will enter the final while the next three fastest will reach the semi-final. Samba – a two-time Asian Games champion and 2019 World Championships bronze medalists – will be Qatar’s main medal hope in the competition dubbed one of the most difficult challenges in the ongoing Olympics. The event will see the likes of Norway’s Karsten Warholm – a Tokyo Olympic champion, three-time world champion and world record-holder, US record-holder Rai Benjamin, the Tokyo silver medallist, and Brazil’s 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos in action.
“The 400m hurdles is one of the hardest events. If you win this time you will be the best in history. I wish I can make that history,” Samba, who finished fifth in Tokyo Olympics, said in a video posted by the Qatar Olympic Committee on X.
The 28-year-old whose career has been marred by injuries made his return from the recent lay-off at the Stockholm Diamond League in June c.