Athletics will be focus of fans in the Mena region as action continues at the Tokyo Olympics.
See which athletes will be fighting for glory on Sunday in the list below.
Athletics
Olympic Stadium
Another full schedule on the third day of athletics, with finals in the women’s shot put and triple jump, and men’s high jump and the 100 metres.
Mutaz Essa Barshim will be leaping for his first Olympic gold. The Qatari breezed into the final without touching the bar in the qualifying rounds. Having won two of the Qatar’s five Olympic medals (bronze in London 2012 and silver in Rio 2016) Barshim will be looking to go one better.
Femi Ogunode of Qatar will be racing for a place in the final of the men’s 100m. Ranked 164th he is coming into the semi-finals as an outsider. However as season’s bests go, he is the third fastest in his heat (0.02s of the second). A top-two finish is all that is needed for a place in the final.
Hanna Minenko of Israel will be appearing in her third Olympic finals in the women’s triple jump.
In the men’s 800m semi-finals, Oussama Nabil and Abdelati El Guesse from Morocco will be looking for a place in the finals, along with Abdessalem Ayouni of Tunisia.
Abderahman Samba of Qatar and Abdelmalik Lahoulou of Algeria both qualified to make it into today’s men’s 400m semi-finals.
The heats begin today in the women’s steeplechase. There’s a strong medal hopeful in Bahrainian Winifred Mutile Yavi. Keep an eye out for Marwa Bouzayani of Tunisia and Adva Cohen of Israel.
In the men’s 400m heats we will be looking out for Ahmed Al Yaasri of Yemen, Mazen Al Yassin of Saudi Arabia and Taha Yassen of Iraq.
Fencing - men’s foil team
Makuhari Messe
Egypt’s men will be starting their tournament against world number two, France.
Handball - men’s
Yoyogi National Stadium
Egypt and Bahrain will face-off in the final group match. Bahrain will need the win if they want to guarantee themselves a place in the quarter-finals. Egypt are already safely into the knockout stages, but are unlikely to want to give anything away to the Bahrainians.
Sailing - various
Tunisian pair Medhi Gharbi and Rania Rahali, will be competing in their final races in the Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17 Foiling).
Table tennis - men’s and women’s teams
Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium
Egypt’s women will take on Romania in one of the first matches of the day in the round of 16, while the Egyptian men take on the Chinese in one of the last.
Volleyball - men’s preliminary rounds
Ariake Arena
In the last group matches, it is crunch time for Iran, who will be fighting it out with Japan. Whoever wins will progress through to the quarter-finals from Pool A. Meanwhile Tunisia, who are rock-bottom of Pool B, will be looking for a consolation when they take on group leaders from the Russian Olympic Committee.
Weightlifting - women’s 76kg
Tokyo International Forum
Mahassen Hala Fattouh will be lifting for Lebanon in the women’s 76kg weight class. The National caught up the first-ever female Olympic weightlifter from Lebanon just before the games, read her full story here.
Wrestling - various
Mukahari Messe
Today is the first day of Olympic wrestling, with 18 gold medals up for grabs over the next seven days.
In the very first match-up of the day, Abdelkarim Fergat of Algeria will take on Kenichiro Fumita of Japan in the men’s Greco-Roman 60kg. We will also see Iran’s Ali Reza Nejati and Egypt’s Haythem Mahmoud in action in the same session and weight class.
Meanwhile in the women’s freestyle (76kg class), Zaineb Sghaier will open up the tournament when she takes on Adeline Gray from the US. Egypt’s Samar Hamza will compete shortly afterwards.
And in the men’s Greco-Roman (130kg class), Iran’s Amin Mirzazadeh, Amine Guennicji from Tunisia and Egyptian Abdellatif Homahed will be in action.
