JUSTINE EYES DOHA RETURN - Qatar Olympic Committee

o o o o o o o o o
flying
the flag
Olympic bronze
Mohamed Suleiman won Qatar’s first ever medal at the Olympic Games when
he won bronze in the 1500m at Barcelona 1992 - an achievement that has
earned the runner a special place in Qatar’s sporting history. Since then,
Suleiman has seen support for athletics bloom in Qatar.
Golden memories
Right: Mohamed
Suleiman enjoyed a
medal-winning run
of success for Qatar
during the 1990s.
For many athletes, their careers come full circle the
moment they finish competing and pass on the baton of
their experience to the next generation of youthful talent.
When Qatar Sports spoke to Mohamed Ahmed
Suleiman, Qatar’s first-ever Olympic medalist in the
1500m at the 1992 Barcelona Games, he was doing just
that, having overseen the Qatar Cup Indoor competition
for the youngest class of athletes - the mini cadets and
youth - at the ASPIRE Indoor Hall in December.
Coincidently, he had just been talking to a friend about
the incredible facilities at ASPIRE and how things had
changed from his youthful training days, when there were
just two or three tracks to practice on, including Khalifa
Stadium.
“I ran at the Asian Games in Seoul 1986,
Beijing 1990, Hiroshima 1994 and in
Bangkok 1998 and, believe me, Doha
2006 was something special.”
Now, he says, there are running tracks and grass pitches
everywhere you look in Qatar. “I never thought I’d see
such a big change in my lifetime, “says Suleiman. “Sport
in Qatar is one hundred times more advanced than it was.
It’s good for the young athletes, but we were lucky, too,
because we had the support of the royal family.”
Support networks
In his role as Assistant Secretary General of the Qatar
Athletics Federation (QAF) - and as chief commander of
the Military Athletics Section - he remains at the heart of
the sport in Qatar, which he first represented aged 15 at
the 1986 Arab Youth Championship.
As enthusiastic about athletics as ever, Suleiman recalls
the support he himself received as a young athlete leading
up to his historic bronze medal finish in Barcelona, as if
it were yesterday.
This came not only from his Czech coach, Stanislav
Strobel, but from HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa
Al-Thani, then the Crown Prince of Qatar. “Without his
support I could not have become world class or go on to
win an Olympic medal,” says Suleiman. “I have always had
his support and I will never forget it. Our leaders know
about sport and support sport from their hearts - not just
me, but all athletes who have won medals in the Asian
Games and other championships. I remember that eight
months before the Olympic Games, the QAF organised
training in Arizona in the United States. Before leaving,
I went to His Highness’s house and he said he believed I
could win an Olympic medal.”
Before Barcelona the signs were indeed good for the
young Suleiman. After qualifying for the 1991 World
Championships in Tokyo, where he came ninth, his
coach said that only his inexperience had stopped him
from doing much better. To prove the point, Suleiman
beat both the silver and bronze medallists from Tokyo in a
European Grand Prix event in Rome just two days later.
In the Olympic year, he also beat the 1500m world
record holder, Noureddine Morceli from Morocco, twice
and expectations were high in the summer of 1992 that he
could achieve a bronze or better at the Games.
Unforgettable moments
In Barcelona, Suleiman won his heat and in the semi-final
set a new Olympic record of 3.34.77. But the final was
a different story. “I’d beaten [the eventual gold medal
winner] Fermin Cacho in the semi final, but the final
was run very slowly and I finished in 3.40.77, six seconds
slower than in the semi-final. I thought I had a silver
medal, but this Moroccan guy [Rachid El Basir] got to
the line before me. I was a little unhappy because I knew I
could have done better, but at the same time I was happy
to win the first Olympic medal in the history of Qatar
and the Gulf. The Crown Prince told me many times that
however many medals we get in the Olympics, ‘you will
always be the first’.
Back in Doha, his reception was ‘fantastic’ and topped off
by a celebration along the Corniche in front of thousands
of supporters chanting his name. “After the medal my life
changed completely,“ says Suleiman. “It was a really great
time. I’ll never forget it and I know my people will never
forget it. If I won ten gold medals I could not repay my
country in how they supported me.”
From a humble Corporal in the Qatar Army, Suleiman
30 QatarSport Q1.08