Before I mention the results of the Lebanese Juniors and Youth Championships, last week the Inter-Lebanon and road running club has organized a local meeting at the Sports City of Beirut, where 2 national and 1 juniors’ records were broken! Nour Fakhoury (Inter-Lebanon) who broke the 100m Hurdles few days before, has just improved her record by hurdling a great 100m in 16.05 seconds! Her previous record was 16.45s. The record done, we expect her to do a sub 16 seconds, and of course she can! Furthermore, Maria-Pia Nehme (Inter-Lebanon) came back to her routine that consists of improving her performance race after race, to improve this time her 3000m national record clocking a beautiful 10:16.86. On the other hand, Badri Obeid (Army), the National record holder of Shot Put with 17.01m and 943 points set at the Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009, scored this time 17.16m which proves that he can always give his best and throw even further!
Back to the Youth and Juniors Championships; I was asking myself and I'm sure that many of you asked the same question before: Where are the Lebanese clubs? We only see 5 clubs of 20! Club Sportif de Jamhour, Inter-Lebanon, Champville, Antonins and Phoenicia, and the numberof participant is not large! Ok, track and field is not a popular sport like football and basketball, but it is the base of all sports! This is why it’s called the mother of all sports! Where are the young athletes?? And where do they disappear? Next week you will watch the Bantam and Midget Lebanese Championships, and you will find a huge number of little kids enjoying the field, 2 years later the number will be divided by 2 or 3. Any way, we must not only attract and encourage the youth to Track and field attach them to the sport, like a mother who embraces her kids!
Despite the small number of participants, one athlete showed us that he can JUMP! He started his venture into track and field 2 years ago, last year in 2011, he cleared 1.80m in an unofficial competition, and last week, he jumped 1.83m in his 1st competition this year. Finally he proved to all that he can jump, that he is talented by clearing the 1.86m! He took 1st place in juniors, but his date of birth is 1st October 1994, so he officially equaled the youth High Jump record held by Abed Berjawi. This guy has a lot more to show and his name is Ali Hallal (Antonins).
On the other Hand, a quite girl was working very hard and was very serious in training, came this time to walk and not to run! She was 3rd in 5km walk in the youth West Asian Championship, and she was only a midget, now as a youth girl she improved her time by 4 minutes!!! To BREAK this time the record and sign her name in the history book! Sandy Karam (Champville) clocked 33:44.02 and will certainly improve it if she continues to work that hard!
We should not forget that Hurdles, Steeplechase, Walking, Hammer throw, Pole vault, Heptathlon and Decathlon are part of track and field and that the athletes should be encouraged to do such events. Of course it requires some technical management and equipments, especially in Lebanon, but we should not miss these events or delete them from the Lebanese track and Field.
Congrats all of you!! I'm sure it's not your best for 2012, so we're expecting more great performances like these. Keep working hard!
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