40 athletes eye London slots in Dubai meet

Dubai: Around 40 top athletes from 12 countries, including the UAE, will attempt to qualify for this summer's London Olympics at the Asian Athletic Federation (AAF) Permit Meeting to be held at the Dubai Police Officers Club in Al Garhoud tomorrow.

The meeting has drawn a host of top-level athletes and medal hopefuls in four different events — the 1,500 metres run for men and women, the 800 metres for men and the 5,000 metres for women.

Competition will get underway at 6.30pm, with the UAE hoping for at least three of its runners to make the London Olympics qualifying marks.

Details of the Permit Meeting were announced yesterday in a press conference called by Sa'ad Al Muhairi, General-Secretary of the UAE Athletic Federation (UAE AF), in the presence of Abdul Mohsin Al Dossary, Assistant General-Secretary of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare, at the UAE National Olympic Committee premises.

Improvement

Alia Saeed Mohammad, an Emirati, is the reigning Arab women's champion in the 5,000m with a personal best of 15min 31sec. She has shown tremendous improvement and a capacity to even clock a sub-15 minute time and make it to London.

Her teammate Bethlehem Desalegn Belayneh, who has a personal best of 15:36 in the same event, won a silver medal at the Asian Indoor Games in China earlier this year.

While the two UAE runners are tipped to be near the top of the pack, their challengers are likely to include Meryem Erdogan of Turkey, the 2010 European Under-23 cross country champion; former world junior champion Veronica Nyaruai Wanjiru of Kenya and Tiblet Diriba Hayu of Ethiopia, a dual champion earlier this year.

The men's 800m has a true mix of athletes from across the world, including the UK, Egypt, Algeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Turkey and Oman. But it will be Bahrain's Bilal Mansour, a former World Youth Champion and finalist at the World Championships, who is the hot favourite.