Mix up in Doha? The banner is held upside down while a former Kenyan wins for Qatar: Mubarak Shami takes marathon gold at the Asian Games. © www.photorun.net

Runners from Qatar and Bahrain among the men, and from China and Japan for the women, won gold medals in the running events of these championships, which ended in Qatar on Tuesday. There were no great surprises—a new Chinese revolution in the long distances did not manifest itself with just a year and a half to go until the Olympic Games in Beijing. Qatar and Bahrain had in recent years a consistent policy of granting citizenship to top African runners, along with suitable financial inducement, and have once again profited from these athletes at a championship.

The marathon fields in Doha were sparse. Twenty-two runners went to the start line in the men’s race. At the finish, the winner was the strong favorite, Mubarak Shami. The former Kenyan, now running for Qatar, went through the 20-kilometer mark in 1:06:10 hours as part of the large leading group. Before 25K, he increased the tempo, took the lead and ran, unchallenged, to victory in 2:12:44. The Prague marathon champion in 2006 as well as Vienna and Venice in 2005, who has a personal best of 2:09:22, had an advantage of almost three minutes at the finish. Behind him Khalid Yaseen (Bahrain, 2:15:36) and Satoshi Osaki (same time) fought a sprint duel for second place. The Japanese lost and received the bronze medal.

A grand total of ten runners entered the women’s marathon, according to an online entry list supplied by the organizers. Here too, victory went to the overwhelming favorite: the Chinese Zhou Chunxiu had a solo run to victory after she went clear shortly after the start. The 27-year-old, who ran 2:19:51 to win in Seoul in March, crossed the line in 2:27:03. In high humidity, the Japanese Kiyoko Shimahara took second with 2:30:34. Third was her compatriot Kayoko Obata, four seconds behind.

While James Kurui won the 5,000 meter in 13:38.90 minutes for Qatar, there was a surprise in the 10,000m. Hasan Mahboob (Bahrain) has won a few road races in his career, but had never done a track race. Yet he won his debut, running 27:58.88 to edge out Ismail Rashed (Qatar, 27:59.15). The world record holder for the 3,000m steeplechase, Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qatar), was forced to withdraw because of injury. Another former Kenyan, Mubarak Salem, won for Bahrain in 8:26.5.

The women’s 10,000m was a clear victory for Kayoko Fukushi. The Japanese, who had already set an Asian record in the half marathon this year, ran a speedy 31:29.38 and had an advantage of more than 45 seconds over Saleh Jasim (Bahrain, 32:17.14). The marathon specialist Hiromi Ominami (Japan) was a close third in 32:18.02.

The Chinese Xue Fei, just 17 years old, won the 5,000m final in a sprint finish with 15:40.12 over Kayo Sugihara (Japan, 15:40.87). Xue, who had already won the world junior title at the distance in Beijing in August, could well be a factor at the 2008 Olympic Games. She gave notice of better times ahead for the Chinese, saying, “We were in a trough, but I believe that the Chinese women runners will be back on top.”