(MENAFN- Gulf Times) You can't keep Abderrahman Samba and Abdalelah Haroun out of Qatar's scheme of things as far as athletics is concerned. The current stars and potential future legends teamed up to help the country bag their fifth gold medal at the Asian Games as the track and field competitions concluded yesterday in the Indonesian capital.
Samba ran a blistering first leg in the 4x400m relay and Haroun put in a solid final lap as Qatar smashed the Asian Games record to power home in 3:00.56 minutes at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. Mohamed Abbas and Mohamed Mohamed were also clinical in the middle, capitalising on the pace set by Samba and then ensuring a smooth baton exchange before Haroun took charge to romp home in style.
Qatar's time beat the mark of 3:01.70 set by Japan's Jun Osakada, Kenji Tataba, Masayoshi Kan and Shunji Karube at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998. India took the silver in 3:01.85 while Japan were third in 3.01.94.
'I have no words to express how happy I am to help Qatar win the gold today. It feels amazing to first win an individual gold and then a team gold. I couldn't have expected more at my first Asian Games, Samba said.
Samba, who had won the 400m hurdles gold earlier, said he would take a call later on whether to also run the 400m flat on a serious basis.
'I'll be surely helping out the team in the relays but there are a lot of things to be considered before I take up the 400 seriously, said Samba, who has run a couple of 400m flat races in the build-up towards the Asian Games.
Haroun, who won the 400m flat in Jakarta, added that they were always confident of winning the gold in the relay.
'Everything depended on a great start, and when Abderrahman gave us that it was only a matter of not making any mistakes. That we did and the rest is history, said Haroun.
Qatar raised their medal tally to 12, five of which are gold, four are silver and three bronze.
Earlier, Japan took the 4x100 metres relay gold and Bahrain's Edidiong Odiong added the 4x100m title to her 100m and 200m victories, only to miss out on an unprecedented fourth win in the 4x400m.
Three of the four sprinters who helped Japan to a sensational silver behind the Usain Bolt-led Jamaican team at the Rio Olympics in 2016 teamed up again to sound notice ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 in a time of 38.16 seconds.
Indonesian spectators brought the roof down as the hosts held on to second place ahead of China in 38.77.
'We came here hoping to win the gold medal and we are happy that we achieved it, said Japan star Ryota Yamagata.
'Now we have the Olympics in mind and we are confident too, he added.
Indonesian teen Lalu Zohri, who has become a national icon after winning the world junior 100m title recently, thanked the fans for the support he received.
'I feel very proud that I could live up to expectations and help Indonesia win a medal. I hope to do even better for my beloved country, he added.
He admitted he was a bit nervous during the 100m final a few days ago where he finished seventh.
'I was mentally down to see some big names during the sprint. But today was different because it was a team event.
Zohri, who used to live in a bamboo shack on the earth-quake hit Lombok Island, has got a new house built paid for by the government after he won the junior title in Finland.
Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan lived up to expectations in the triple jump, her 14.26m effort proving good enough for her third consecutive Asian Games gold.
Rypakova, 33, the London Olympics champion 2012, said she was confident of continuing for a few more years.
'It's my job. I have a little worry that there's nobody coming through after me in Kazakhstan nobody who can match my results in the future.
India won two more gold medals to take their athletics tally to seven vastly improving on the two they won in Incheon.
Jinson Johnson won the 1,500m, while India's women easily beat favourites Bahrain to claim the 4x400m relay.
Bahrain and China both won 12 gold in athletics at the Games.
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