UAE’s star para athlete Mohammed Al Hammadi won the country their third medal at the Tokyo Paralympics when he bagged a silver in the men’s 800m T34 on Saturday.
The Emirati clocked 1:45.59 to finish second. This is Hammadi’s second medal at the ongoing Games as he had won the UAE their first medal earlier this week when he came third in the men’s 100m T34.
Tunisian Walid Ktila took the gold with a race time of 1:45.50 while Chinese athlete Yang Wang took bronze with a season best time of 1:45.68.
Nicknamed Qaeed (leader), Al Hammadi was the United Arab Emirates’ flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
There is an interesting anecdote about Al Hammadi in Paralympic.org when he won four medals at the 2017 World Championships in London and gave them all to the children of Abdullah Hayayei, an Emirati Para athlete who died in a training accident several days before the start of the championships.
“Abdullah was a very sociable person. He talked to everybody in the team and played cards and dominoes with us all. He is not just an athlete but also a friend of all of us. What you must also know is that, before the championships, Abdullah had renovated his house and he had Tokyo 2020 put on all of the windows. He wanted that to motivate him. Now I am going to go to Tokyo and represent Abdullah. If I win a medal, I will devote it to him,” he said.
Abdullah Sultan Alaryani, veteran para shooter, had won the country their first gold medal of the Games in the men’s 50m rifle event. Alaryani, incidentally, now has four medals from different editions of the Games.
