Bangkok, July 15 (QNA) - Qatar's Bassem Hemeida won Saturday the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the 25th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, with the participation of more than 500 male and female athletes representing 41 Asian countries.

The 23-year-old athlete managed to win first place in the race and also to qualify for the World Championships to be held in August in Hungary, in addition to qualifying for the Olympic Games (Paris 2024).

Bassem Hemeida scored a time of 48.64 seconds to win the first gold medal for Qatari athletics in the championship ahead of Japan's Yusaku Kodama, who finished second to win the silver medal with a time of 48.96 seconds, while India's Santhosh Kumar came in third place with the Bronze medal.

After winning the race, Bassem expressed his happiness at this achievement for the first time in his career.

Talking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Bassem said that his joy at winning the gold is indescribable, given that it is his first gold at the continental level for the adult category, and it qualified him for the World Athletics Championships in Hungary next month and for the 2024 Paris Olympics Games.

For his part, deputy head of the national teams committee of the Qatar Athletics Association Khalifa Abdulmalik, in remarks to QNA, praised Bassem's great achievement by winning the gold medal and qualifying for the World Championships in Hungary as well as qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. (QNA)