By Şevket F. ERBAY
There are only painful moments in the first night of action at the Islamic Solidarity Games, which are staged in Riyadh's fully empty stadium. The men's 100 metres semi-finalists were scattered after a technical issue repeatedly delayed the action, and it happened again at the end of the night, which turned into a massacre for the contestants.
The first 100m semi-final did not occur at the scheduled time, with five consecutive false starts, and the athletes were invited back to the call room without a finish. The second semi-final was completed first, followed by a 10-minute rest, and the athletes from the first heat returned to the blocks again. After a ridiculous seventh try, they finally completed the race as Emmanuel Eseme secured first place by clocking 10.27 seconds.
One hour later, the eight finalists re-entered the stadium. In the first attempt, the system failed again, and the anxious wait caused an apparent failure for Saudi Abdullah Mohammed in the next try. On top of the chaos, Nigerian sprinter Caleb John has been injured and forced out of the final because of his ninth try in just 80 minutes!
The men's 100 metres final was completed on the third occasion, and Oman's young gun Ali Anwar Al-Balushi won it in 10.30 after a merely sluggish start.
The technical problems are not unfamiliar to the Games. In the previous edition in the Turkish city of Konya, the sprinting marks were flying away in the first two days. Then the technical delegate discovered an error in the photo-finish system. The results were counted as invalid for statistical purposes, but the given medals remained for the first three days.
The Islamic Solidarity Games athletics competition is scheduled for four days until the 21st of November in Riyadh. Nearly 500 athletes from over 50 nations are competing for the medals in the sixth edition of the Games.
