BAHRAIN’S Benson Seurei will be hoping to secure a place in the medal round of the men’s 1,500 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Seurei will be running in the first of two heats scheduled for early tomorrow morning at 2.45am Bahrain time. Each heat will feature 13 participants.
Only the top five in each race, plus the two fastest losers, move on to the 1,500m final. The title-decider is scheduled to take place on the early morning of Sunday.
Seurei heads into the semi-finals having clocked a season’s best of three minutes 35.28 seconds. His personal best is 3:31.61, while in the opening round of heats, he registered a mark of 3:38.82.
Seurei will be up against some big names in his race. Among them are Jakub Holusa of the Czech Republic, Abdalaati Iguider of Morocco, Nicholas Willis of New Zealand, and former Olympic champion and reigning World champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Salem Eid Yaqoob was in action early in the morning today. He was competing in the men’s 200m semi-finals, which was scheduled for 4.05am, Bahrain time.
Yaqoob was running in the second of three races in this stage, each of which had eight runners. Only the first two from each race plus the two fastest losers qualified for the medal round.
Meanwhile, Bahraini wrestler Adam Batirov continued his intensive training programme yesterday in preparation for his upcoming competition in the men’s under-65kg freestyle category.
He is scheduled to compete on the very last day of this year’s Olympics on Sunday.