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Eyes turn East after Asian Games(Reuters)Updated: 2006-12-16 18:46
China's Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang turned up and cantered to gold in 13.15 seconds, well outside the world record 12.88 he ran this year. African imports ruled the track for Bahrain and Qatar while Saudi Arabia's John Smith-trained athletics team grabbed five golds to prove it was possible to develop home-grown talent in the Gulf. NO SURPRISE While China's dominance of the medals table was no surprise, the 50cm or so of rain that fell on the desert Emirate over the period of the Games was. The poor weather could not have helped attendances at the events, which were disappointing for a country which had lavished $2.8 billion on the Games and has ambitions to host the 2016 Olympics. Expatriate Indian and Sri Lankans, who make up much of the population of Qatar, turned out in numbers to cheer on their athletes and the kabaddi final and tennis matches featuring Sania Mirza were sell-outs. Only the soccer and basketball attracted large numbers of Qatari nationals and their men's teams responded by reaching the finals, losing on court to China before beating Iraq on the pitch. The presence of Iraqi athletes at the Games for the first time in 20 years was a reminder that not all competitors had an easy path to Doha. Soccer coach Yahya Manhel said the daily sectarian violence in his country had made training nearly impossible, making his team's silver medal a great achievement. "To do this was almost a miracle," he said. "This is a very good message to the Iraqi people and to the people of the world, this is what Iraqis can do when they work together." Doha also witnessed the first death of an athlete in competition in the 55-year history of Games when South Korea's Kim Hyung-chil died after being crushed by his horse in a heavy fall in an equestrian event.
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