The Peninsula
Qatar earned the last ticket to the showjumping team event at Tokyo 2020 Olympics when they finished second at the Morocco Royal Tour 2019 CSIO4*-W in Rabat, yesterday.
The four-member Qatari team conceded the second least number of errors on their way to complete the two rounds with cumulative totals of 239.40 and 238.45 secs.
Egypt topped the standings to book a berth in the Tokyo Games while hosts Morocco, unfortunately, did not qualify for next year's Olympics after finishing third.
Team Qatar was represented by seasoned campaigners Hamad Nasser Al Qadi (S I E C Lonnie), Sheikh Ali Al Thani (Sirocco), Rashid Towaim Ali Al Marri (Armstrong van de Kapel) and Bassem Mohammed (Gunder).
Asian Games bronze medallist, Sheikh Ali was the fastest among the Qatari riders, clocking a time of 77.43 in the second round, conceding nine errors. In the first round, the popular rider who was ranked sixth at the Rio Olympics clocked a time of 81.06 secs and made only one error.
Bassem, who was part of the Qatari team along with Sheikh Ali, completed his first round in 77.77 secs and the next in 80.84 secs. In both his rounds, Bassem only had five spoilers.
Al Qadi contributed with two quick runs of 80.57 secs and 80.18 while conceding 14 errors astride S I E C Lonnie.
This will be Qatar’s second appearance in the Games in a row after an impressive show in Rio, where they finished ninth among the top teams in the world. A total of 20 teams will be in action at the Olympics in Japan.