Hassan Al Noobi ran the race of his life at the Tokyo Games to qualify for the second round in the 100 metre sprint at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.
The Emirati sprinter clocked a personal best 10.59 seconds to finish behind Omani Barakat Mubarak Al Harthi and Emanuel Archibald of Guyana.
Joining them in the top four from the field of nine in the first preliminary heat was Fijian Banuve Tabakacoro.
Al Noobi is the last of the five athletes in the UAE’s Olympic squad to be in action at the Games after the two Moldova-born judokas, Victor Scvortov and Ivan Remarenco, shooter Saif bin Futtais and swimmer Yousuf Al Matrooshi, all bowed out of their respective competitions earlier.
Al Noobi and Al Harthi will race now in the second preliminary round later in the day again in a field of nine that include American Fred Kerley, Canadian Andre de Grasse and Briton Reece Prescod, all who completed the first heats in under 10 seconds.
