Name Omar Al-Salfa | ||
Born 15 October 1989 (age 34) ( 1989-10-15 ) | ||
Omar Jouma Bilal Al-Salfa, Arabic: عمر جمعة بلال السالفة, (born 15 October 1989) is a track and field athlete from the United Arab Emirates who competes in sprinting events. He was a gold medallist at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships and represented his country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He made his first appearances at major competitions in 2007: he took the bronze medal over 200 metres at the Military World Games in October and then came fourth at the Pan Arab Games with a national record-breaking run of 20.94 seconds. He turned to the indoor circuit at the start of the following season and came fourth at the 2008 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships with a national record of 6.81 seconds for the 60 metres. He was selected for the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships and ran in the heats.
Outdoors he set a national junior record of 10.53 seconds to take the 100 metres title at that year's Arab Junior Championships that, and also went on to win the 200 m gold medal. At the 2008 Asian Junior Athletics Championships he took the gold in the 200 m. He reached the 200 m final at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and gained a place on the Olympic team for the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he competed in the heats stage of the event.
He improved his 200 m record to 20.72 seconds with a win at the Gulf Championships in May 2009. He competed at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and reached the quarter-finals on his debut appearance at the competition. A fourth-place finish over 60 m at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games (with a personal best of 6.72 seconds) was followed by a bronze medal with the Emirati team in the 4×400 metres relay. Al-Salfa won his first major senior title at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships, just dipping ahead of Shinji Takahira of Japan to win the Asian 200 m title. In 2010 he made his first appearance on the IAAF Diamond League circuit running a wind-assisted 10.35 seconds in the 100 m at the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix in Doha. He claimed the 200 m bronze medal behind Nigerian-born Femi Ogunode and Japan's Kenji Fujimitsu at the 2010 Asian Games.