Mubarak:  Mohammad Al Bashir's new UAE national record in the men's 50 metres breaststroke and Farah Al Khojai's qualification to the main competition were the dominant performances for UAE athletes participating at the 16th Asian Games here.

Al Bashir placed 23rd overall, but still managed to set a new UAE national record and a personal best of 30.25 seconds in the men's 50 metres breaststroke heats at the Aoti Aquatics Centre Sunday morning.

China's Xiayan Li recorded the best time of 27.85 secs followed by Iran's Mohammad Ali Rezai (27.95) and Japan's Ryo Tateishi (28.20) in the 50 metres breaststroke.

In the 100 metres butterfly heats, Obaid Al Jasmi came in 25th overall with a time of 57.83 seconds. Japan's Takuro Fujii had the best time of 52.85 followed by China's Jiawei (53.03) and Korea's Gyu-cheol Chang (53.37).

The UAE's swimming coach Jay Benner was pleased with the two swimmers' efforts.

"I am pretty satisfied with what we have done in the pool today," Benner told Gulf News.

"Considering that these swimmers have not been in the water in August and September I think both had pretty solid swims and this is the sort of preparation we are looking forward to as we prepare for the Fina World Championships in Dubai [December 15-19]," the American coach said.

Sailing

The UAE's sailors were in eighth and ninth positions at the end of the opening day's two races in the sailing competition at the Shanwei Watersports Centre.

Adil Khalid improved from ninth place in the first race to eighth in the second in the Open Laser Radial class, while Hamoud Al Zaidi slipped from eighth in the first race to ninth at the end of the second in the Men's Dinghy Optimist class.

Leading the Open Laser Radial is Xiaotian Zhang of China followed by Ahmad Ali Sabri Khan of Malaysia and Keiju Okada of Japan, while in the Dinghy Optimist class Thailand's Keerati Bualong is in the lead followed by South Korea's Insub Kim and Qatar's Waleed Al Sharshani.

The UAE's Sumayya Saleh came in 35th overall while her teammates Shaikha Saeed Al Rumaithi and Shamma Al Muhairi ended in 49th and 52nd respectively during the qualifying round of the women's 10 metres air pistol competition at the Aoti Shooting Range.

"I think it was the pressure that got to them," UAE's shooting coach Liudmila Dovgal told Gulf News.

"I was just thinking of how to get a medal for my country and that made me nervous at the start," added Sumayya Saleh.