Paris: Mazoon al Alawi, will chase up for a different show in her third Olympic presence as she will compete in the preliminary heats of the Women's 100m at Stade de France on Friday. The fastest Omani women previously took part in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In her last Olympics, she finished sixth with a timing of 12.35 seconds in the preliminary heats of Group 3 in 100m while she had delivered much better at Rio 2016 Olympics after she had clocked 12.43 seconds.
Ali al Balushi will commence his Olympic debut on Saturday in the Men's 100m at the same venue which has hosted athletic events since its construction in 1998. Al Balushi will look to show a promising performance and achieve advanced times despite the tough competition.
Both athletes are training daily on the main track to adapt to the competition environment ahead of the Olympic challenge in coming days.
National head coach Fahad al Mashaykhi said training of Al Balushi started in August 2023. “ The goal was to develop the required speed for such races starting with indoor races over shorter distances. We started 60m indoor race during a training camp in Turkey last January breaking Omani record with a timing of 6.58 seconds,” he said.
“ Ali took part in several overseas camps and external competitions and events including the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Iran where he won first place clocking a time of 6.50 seconds to set both Omani and Gulf records,”.
"From March to April, the training took place at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat. In the following month, Ali participated in international athletics meets including the Grand Prix in Dubai and a few camps in Europe including two camps in Greece, one in the Czech Republic and another in Germany—achieving his best time of 10.17 seconds."
“ The sprinter had participated at the West Asian Championships in Iraq last May and was followed by camps in France, Italy and Turkey in July. Then, he had competed at Arab Youth Championships in Egypt where he managed to win two gold medals with timing of 10.00 seconds in the 100m event and 20.68 seconds in 200m,” he ended
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