Incheon: Cyclist Yousuf Al Hammadi narrowly missed a bronze medal in the men’s Omnium event while coach William Rowe hoped his players can bring their best to the table in the bowling competition as the UAE continued its search for a medal on the fourth day at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games on Tuesday.
After winning Monday’s opening 15km race of the men’s Omnium, Al Hammadi signed off with yet another strong finish as he topped the gruelling 40km points race on Tuesday. But given the complex format of the Omnium competition, those two wins were simply not enough as he finished in fourth with a total of 225 points, just four away from the bronze medal winner at the Incheon International Velodrome on Tuesday evening.
Eiya Hashimoto of Japan went on to clinch gold with a total of 234 points, while home favourite Cho Hosung took the silver with 232 points leaving the bronze for Hong Kong China’s Cheung King Lok with 229 points.
In Omnium, the winner is determined by adding the score of six events of both short and long distances races held over two days. The 12 riders representing as many countries had done the 15km scratch race, the elimination race and 4km individual time trial on Monday.
On Tuesday, the riders did a 1km time trial in the morning and followed this up by the 330m flying lap and finally the 40km points race that was won by Al Hammadi.
“The sprints hurt me badly. I did what I could to see my country’s flag flying high, but finally, my best was not good enough for a medal. However, the good thing is that I now know what I need to do to take this final step and win a medal for the UAE,” Al Hammadi told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, the UAE bowling squad of six was left ruing their inconsistency at the lanes as bowlers from Thailand and China took the medals in the men’s singles competition at the Anyang Hogye Gymnasium.
Larp Apharat Yannaphon and Kunaksorn Sithiphol of Thailand won the gold and bronze respectively leaving the silver for China’s Du Jianchao.
The UAE squad consisting of six bowlers, including three former Asian Games medallists — Mahmoud Al Attar, Naif Oqab and Shaker Ali Hassan along with Mohammad Al Marzouki, Hussain Al Suwaidi and Hareb Al Mansouri — all ended outside the top-10 with the best being Oqab in 12th overall, Hussain Al Suwaidi second best in 13th overall and Shaker Ali in 15th.
“Though we have an experienced team of bowlers this is a really new experience for all of us as we get to know each other. Though they did reasonably well, I think there are better results in them,” coach Rowe told Gulf News.
Canadian Rowe took over the national squad two months back. Since then the team has trained together and also attended international competitions outside the UAE. “But we need time to click as a unit. Definitely there are better results on the horizon,” Rowe promised.
The bowling team has been a regular at winning Asian Games medals. Of the 23 Asian Games medals won so far by the UAE since their first participation at the 1990 Beijing Asiad, ten have come from the bowling squads.
Meanwhile, in the swimming the UAE’s Mohammad Al Muhairi had very little excuse to offer after limping out of the men’s 50m freestyle heats while finishing seventh at the Munhak Aquatics Centre earlier in the morning. Al Muhairi was timed at 24.54 seconds, more than two seconds off the time set by heat winner Ito Kenta of Japan.
Al Muhairi was not too concerned about the performance. “I think we will need a bit of time to get accustomed to the coaching methods of our new coach. It’s only been a few months and we will start improving in the future,” Al Muhairi promised.
The UAE swimmer said that the goal at the moment was to make an impression at the Fina World Championships to be held in Doha in December. “Before that we have stops on the world tour in China, Singapore and Japan and that should be a good preparation for us going into Qatar,” he said.
The men’s bowling competition will continue on Thursday with the doubles.
