UAE’s final competitor fails to make final

London: Mohammad Abbas — the UAE’s final athlete to compete in the 2012 London Olympics — failed to qualify for the final of the men’s triple jump here on Tuesday morning.

On an unusually overcast and cold morning, the 26-year-old started off with a foul on his first jump and then went to 16.06m in the second attempt. In the third he could only manage 15.93m, not good enough to make it to the final as one of six qualifiers from Group B.

The best jump in Abbas’ group came from American Christian Taylor with a leap of 17.21m, followed by Leevan Sands of Bahamas with 17.17m.

Group A consisted of strong contenders led by Frenchman Benjamin Compaore, who went through with 17.00m.

Abbas saw this as his best chance of at least making it through to the finals here. “I cannot explain what happened with me. I was feeling just right during warm-up, and then I come here and everything seemed to just freeze,” he told Gulf News.

With another four days of the Olympics still to go, this performance brings down the curtain for participation from the UAE.