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Osamah Alshanqiti celebrates on the podium.[Xinhua] |
The triple jumper (F12) Osamah Alshanqiti won the first gold medal in the Olympic history of Saudi Arabia with a world record-breaking jump of 15.37 meters.
"I am happy, I am really really happy because I made this on the last jump," said the 32-year-old who was extremely excited about his performance after defeating Ukraine jumper Ivan Kytsenko, who was in the lead after the first five jumps. "I do not have any special tactics and I just do it step by step with patience. The fifth jump is the key jump in my whole competition, and the last one is the explosion of my force."
Osamah kept his promise of winning a gold medal and breaking the world record made in training on Sunday (September 7). "I had a 'special number', 16.30m, in my training, that's why I am so confident today, though I didn't jump very well in the first few rounds."
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Osamah Alshanqiti competes.[Xinhua] |
"Osamah is a strong and serious man. He is serious with everything in life. He loves the Triple Jump," said his coach Faiz Alshehri. "Osamah trained very hard. To prepare for the Paralympics, he trained in Tunisia and Malaysia to adapt himself to the different conditions. I hope he can also get a good result in the Long Jump," the coach said.
"My whole country will celebrate together with me. The gold is for the whole country, not for myself alone. Today's match definitely gives me much confidence for my next event, the Long Jump," said Osamah.
Although Long Jump is not Osamah's favorite, he is still ambitious to create another record and get another gold medal for his country.
Osamah was already a Triple Jump and Long Jump athlete when he sustained an injury to his eye in an accident in 2000. He began his Paralympics career in 2006.
(BOCOG September 8, 2008)