Jamal Al-Safaar wins the men's 100m at the Asian Games (© Gray Mortimore)
In 2002, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emerged as one of the most potent forces in men's athletics in Asia. Showing a vast improvement in some of the key international events during the year, in particular a haul of seven gold and one silver medal at last autumn’s Asian Games in Busan, Saudi athletes are now climbing on to the world stage, which is no mean feat given that the country possesses no previously known 'athletic culture'.
The key to Saudi success has been the innovative ideas of their athletic officials, who have contributed greatly in nurturing promising athletes under state patronage. Most prominent of these officials has been Prince Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Suad, who heads the Saudi Arabian Athletic Federation, and has guided its track and field destiny.
However, the recipe for this Saudi Arabian success story was masterminded by none other than the USA coaching guru, John Smith, whose strategy is ambitiously aimed at challenging his own stable of American champions at the 2004 Olympics and beyond. As such, Prince Nawaf Bin Mohammed is quite pleased to confirm that the significant raise of Saudi athletes, starting with a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics and now confirmed with the six individual golds and one relay victory in Busan, is be no means a lucky fluke.
Saudi athletics success is very much a case of nurture winning over nature. Having recognized the unfavourable local training conditions for their athletes, the authorities thought of alternative measures to produce world class athletes.
Talented athletes from different regions of this desert kingdom are picked at young ages and placed under the guidance of international class coaches whose expenses are funded by the federation. Once they reach the national level, they are directed to pre-identified events and to foreign training camps, the sprinters in the United States, long distance runners in Morocco, middle distance runners in Romania and long jumpers in the Bahamas.
What is also significant is that, in such a hierarchical society that all top athletes are well looked after, irrespective of their social standards or family background. They are given all-year round overseas training under the best foreign coaches and the Government also promises to secure their futures beyond the sport.
A decade ago, Saudi Arabia was virtually an unknown athletic destination in Asia but now during the last few years, the investment is beginning to bear fruit.
"We trained them with a vision. When we started our development programmes several years ago, we knew that we could reach these levels and even more. So, it’s not a surprise but rather the rewards of hard work, dedication and talent," confirmed Prince Nawaf Bin Mohammed, when evaluating his team's performance after the Asian Games.
Saudi Arabia won just one silver and a bronze medal at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, but eight years later, they bagged seven gold medals and a silver inside six days.
However, the Prince anticipates greater achievements by his athletes in future. "This is just the beginning of Saudi Arabian athletics, better things are yet to come," he said, with reference to the IAAF World Championships in Paris and the Asian Championships in the Philippines.
"We have prepared for this for the past four years on a special programme. The Asian Games success was the first chapter of a master plan which takes in next year's World Championships and then the Athens Olympics the year after. Prince Nawaf had a vision out of which you come up with a dream. Now, they are breaking Asian records," that's how Smith analyses the progress of the team.
Right now, Saudi Arabia has several IAAF top ranked players in their national side - Hadi Samalan Al Somaliy (fourth in men's 400m hurdles), Saad Shaddad Al Asmari (fifth in men's 3000m steeplechase), Jamal Abdullah Al Saffar (25th in men's 100m), Salem Mubarak Al Yami (46th in men's 100m) and Hamdon Obah Al Bishi (16th in men's 400m).
Although the Saudis had never won an Asiad athletics gold before, they knew they had the right weaponry coming into Busan, which was born of a mixture of money and the advice of the fabled coach John Smith..
Finances have never been a worry for the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation. As an example, the previously unheralded Moukhled Al-Otaibi after pulling off his 5000m-10,000m Asian Games double and was given US$80,000 as his reward.
The 22-year-old soldier is the only leading Saudi runner not listed as being coached by Smith, whose track products include Olympic champion Maurice Greene, Ato Boldon, and Jon Drummond. In Busan, Al-Otaibi, a wiry, dapper gymnast-turned runner, joined a select band of athletes who have won a long distance double at the Asian Games - Japanese record holder Toshinari Takaoka (1994), Indian Hari Chand (1978) and Sri Lankan S.L.B. Rosa (1970).
400m hurdler Hadi Al-Somaily, a silver medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Hamden Al-Bishi a multiple Asian Championship and Games 400m medallist, have already made their presence felt on the world circuit. Al-Somaily clocked a new Asian Games record of 48.42 seconds to win men's 400m hurdles gold in Busan, while Al-Bishi came away with two individual silvers and an Asian Games 4x400m relay gold from last summer’s two main Asian events in Colombo and Busan.
With the Asian Games scheduled to take place in the Gulf region (Doha) in 2005, Saudi Arabia can no doubt expect a harvest of medals on ‘home territory’. However, given their rapid improvement it surely won’t be that much of a surprise if the world as a whole also gets to marvel at the brilliance of Saudi athletes at the forthcoming World Championships and Olympic Games.
Dinesh Weerawansa for the IAAF
