Alia Saeed Mohammed wins Asian Games gold for UAE

The UAE's Alia Saeed Mohammed ran a personal best to win the Asian Games women's 10,000 metres on Saturday and claim the first of an expected slew of medals.

Mohammed, orginally from Ethiopia, led a breakaway trio with five laps to go at Incheon's Asiad Main Stadium, comfortably holding off China's Ding Changgin and Ayumi Hagiwara of Japan to claim her adopted country's first gold of the Games.

This is the second medal for the UAE's at the 17th Asian Games, with Sheikh Juma bin Dalmook Al Maktoum winning the bronze medal in the double trap shooting event on Thursday.

The 20-year-old Mohammed's winning time of 31 minutes, 51.86 seconds was the fastest of her career and she will go into Thursday's 5,000m full of confidence.

Qatar's Mohamad Al-Garni, who was born in Morocco, followed up with gold in the men's 5,000m, launching a blistering last-lap kick to stun pre-race favourite Albert Kibichii Rop of Bahrain.

Al-Garni shaved more than 12 seconds off the 20-year-old Asian Games record and more than a minute off his personal best, crossing the line in 13 minutes, 26.13 seconds.

Rop, who switched from his native Kenya last year, could only manage bronze behind team-mate Alemu Bekele Gebre, originally from Ethiopia.

At the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, Bahrain and Qatar dominated the men's long-distance track events, taking all six medals on offer in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

In the field events, Tajikistan's Dilshod Nazarov added a third Asian Games hammer gold to add to the ones he won in 2006 and 2010.
Even a season's best throw of 73.65 metres from China's Wang Shizhu was not enough to catch Nazarov's 76.82. China's Wan Yong took bronze with 73.43.

There was gold for China in the women's shot put, where Gong Lijiao won from Iran's Leyla Rajabi.

The star turn on Saturday comes when Bahrain's Kenya-born teenager Ruth Jebet starts hot favourite to win the 3,000m steeplechase and break the tournament record on the way.

Jebet, 17, broke the Asian record at the Diamond League meet in Zurich this year in 9:20.55 seconds, more than half-a-minute faster than the Asiad record set in 2010 by reigning champion Sudha Singh of India, who also runs on Saturday.