Abdalelah Haroun Hassan ( ar, عبد الإله هارون; 1 January 1997 – 26 June 2021) was a Qatari

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

sprinter. He specialised in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

. He was the 2015 Asian champion in the event and holds the Asian indoor record.

Biography

Haroun was recruited at a young age from Sudan by Qatar. He gained eligibility to represent Qatar in February 2015. His first recorded performance was a time of 45.74 seconds for the 400 m in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

in April 2014, which placed him among the world's most promising young sprinters for the event. He announced himself on the elite scene in his next performance at the

XL Galan The Globen Galan is an annual indoor athletics event held in February at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting was first held in 1990 and from 2000 to 2010 known as GE Galan, because General Electric was the official title sponsor ...

in February 2015 by running an Asian indoor record of 45.39 seconds, which was also the third fastest ever by a junior category athlete and the fastest ever indoor debut. His next outing one month later he set an outdoor best of 44.68 seconds. He was a comfortable victor at the 2015 Arab Athletics Championships in April, beating Egypt's Anas Beshr by nearly a second. He ran at the

Doha Diamond League The Doha Diamond League is an annual one-day track and field meeting held at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar. It is part of the Diamond League – the top level international circuit for the sport. It is typically held in May as the fi ...

meeting and won the non-Diamond-race contest with another sub-45-second run. On his

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

debut proper, he finished fifth at the

Prefontaine Classic The Prefontaine Classic, an Oregon Track Club event, is one of the premier track and field meets in the United States, held in Eugene, Oregon. Every year it draws a world caliber field to compete at Hayward Field on the campus of the University o ...

. He quickly established himself as one of Asia's top senior athletes at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships by beating two-time defending champion

Yousef Masrahi Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (Arabic:يوسف مسرحي) (born 31 December 1987, in Najran) is a Saudi Arabian track and field athlete, who specialises in the 400 metres sprint. His personal best time for the event is 43.93 seconds, set in 2015, and ...

of Saudi Arabia in the 400 m final with his third 44.68-second clocking of the season. Masrahi was indignant about losing to his younger rival, saying "44.68 is nothing for me actually. I will come back. I will break the Asian record again". On June 26, 2021, Haroun died in a car crash in Doha, at the age of 24.

Personal bests

*400 metres outdoors: 44.07 seconds (2018) *400 metres indoors: 45.39 seconds (2015) *4 × 400 metres relay: 3:00.56 (2018)

International competitions

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haroun, Abdalelah 1997 births 2021 deaths Qatari male sprinters Sudanese male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Qatar Asian Games gold medalists for Qatar Asian Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Qatar World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists IAAF Continental Cup winners Asian Athletics Championships winners Asian Indoor Athletics Championships winners Qatari people of Sudanese descent Sudanese emigrants to Qatar Naturalised citizens of Qatar Road incident deaths in Qatar