Anam Arsalan
Doha, Qatar- Qatar’s young athlete Owaab Barrow, who won the gold medal in the 110m hurdles at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, shed light on his performance, here on Sunday.
He spoke to Al Kass Digital on the sidelines of the Qatar Olympic Committee organised Sport Excellence Day, where he was adjudged the ‘Promising Male Athlete of the Year Award’.
Excerpts from the interview.
On his performance in Argentina:
It was one of my best performance. Because I was not at my peak. I was at the end of the season where I am very lenient and I wasn’t really expecting the timings. But, because of the determination and training that I put through, I managed to get this time. The competition was very high over there. And the elite athletes encouraged me to do my best.
I ran my Personal best of 13.17 seconds in Buenos Aires (during the Youth Olympic Games).
On his performance during the year:
The whole year was … ups and downs. Midway through the season, I had an injury. I had a hamstring injury. However, I recovered from that and came back strong. It wasn’t easy, I wasn’t really expecting it at this rate, when I won the gold medal at the Youth Olympics Games in Argentina. All I would say is, ‘Alhamdulillah’ that I achieved this achievement. I am really thirsty for more.
On his next event:
Hopefully, I would participate in the World Athletics Championships in 2019 in Doha, but my goal would be looking at 2020, for the Junior World Championships [IAAF World U20 Championships in Nairobi], as I would be a junior. Currently, I am 17 year old, early 17.
On competing against seniors at the IAAF World Championships in Doha:
Obviously, it is going to be very, very hard on me as I am not at that level, right now. But, I am just looking for the experience, the more the experience, the better the performance.
On his mindset ahead of a specific run, vis-à-vis the timing:
At the start I am not really looking at the timing. All I am looking at is to get a ‘Personal Best’. To break my time and to always do better than [what I had done] previously. But, coming closer to the competition, I would start thinking about the timings and what I need to achieve in order to get a medal.
Coach Lee Christopher’s take on his performance:
It was a fantastic performance, for himself, for Qatar, and ranked in the world, it was one of the performances in history in the 110 meters hurdles for under-18. So his time of 13.17 not only won him the gold medal, but it was one of the top five times in the history for this age and was an Asian Under-18 record. So it was a really, really top level performance.