Abas opens nation's medal account

Mohammed Abas clinched the UAE's first individual medal of the Arab Athletics Championship last night when he claimed silver in the triple jump.

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Mohammed Abas clinched the UAE's first individual medal of the Arab Athletics Championship last night when he claimed silver in the triple jump. Abas leapt 16.15metres to move from fourth to second on his final jump, 15cm short of the winning distance of 16.30m. "It was a good result but if he had jumped his personal best of 16.36m then he would have won," said Ahmed al Kamali, UAE Athletics Federation president.

Confidence prevailed in the UAE camp late on Wednesday night following a slow opening two days in Syria, when the relay team put together a country-best time to claim silver with a depleted line-up in the 4x100m. The team set a UAE record of 40.19secs. Jasim Saeed and Bilal and Omar al Salfa combined for the other three legs of the UAE's successful medal bid. World Championship qualifier al Salfa and his brother, Bilal, qualified with ease for today's 200m final while Soud Abdul Karim will contest the 400m hurdles final.

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