Qatar's Mubarak Hassan Shami won the International Lake Biwa Marathon, beating Eritrea's Yared Asmerom. Shami crossed the finish line with a time of 2:08:23, while Asmerom crossed the race in 2:08:34. Japan's Satoshi Osaki was third with a time of 2:08:36. This success was achieved by the Qatari athletics star when competed among 400 athletes in the city of Otsu, Japan.

QAAF president, HE Dahlan Al-Hamad, expressed his full satisfaction and pleasure with this result. On this occasion, Al-Hamad said that by this victory of Otsu international marathon, Qatari athletics proved its excellence and distinction. He added that wining the gold medal of this marathon increased the high performance level of Qatar’s Shami in marathon races where he won already seven times accept the Osaka marathon where he seized the silver medal. Al-Hamad emphasized that such achievement leads to other challenges in future especially in the coming Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, yet Qatari athletes will work harder and Shami as well as other athletes in Qatar have high supports under the patronage of HH the Emir and HH Heir Apparent of Qatar.

Shami Challenged Japan’s Satoshi Osaki and the Japanese Spectators

Mr. Mohamed Suleiman, assistant secretary General of QAAF, expressed also his pleasure and commented on this achievement by referring to Shami’s experience in previous international marathons which enabled him to win against Eritrea's Yared Asmerom and Japan's Satoshi Osaki, who was supported by the Japanese spectators. Mr. Suleiman wished Shami more success especially in the coming Beijing Olympic Games to fulfill the Qatari dream of seizing Olympic medals.