ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S elite athlete Hassan Chani narrowly missed out on a podium place in the men’s race of the Casablanca Half Marathon in Morocco, held on Sunday.
Chani finished the 21.1-kilometre run in fourth place with a time of one hour one minute and 46 seconds.
He was not far behind the top three, which was led by winner Yakoub Labquira of Morocco, who bagged the gold medal in 1:01:21. Shadrack Korir Kipyegon from Kenya took silver in 1:01:25, while Martin Kiprotich from Uganda claimed bronze in 1:01:33.
Meanwhile, also in Morocco on Sunday, Bahrain’s El Hassan El Abbassi secured a top 10 result in the men’s race of the Casablanca Marathon, which featured a 42.2km course. El Abbassi completed the distance in a new season’s best time of 2:10:26, just under four minutes behind Daniel Kiprono Sang, who emerged victorious in 2:06:41 to lead a Kenyan one-two.
His countryman Edwin Kiptoo was the runner-up in 2:07.17, while Workineh Tadese from Ethiopia bagged bronze in 2:08:40.
El Abbassi’s participation in Morocco was his second race of the season and it followed his run in the men’s marathon at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan last month. He finished an impressive fifth in that event in a time of 2:12:45.
Also in the Casablanca Marathon for Bahrain was Marouane Habti, who finished 25th in 2:22:01.
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