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Old school ties pay off for Saudi star
SYDNEY, Sept 26 (AFP) - Coaching guru John Smith has set many firsts in his career but on Wednesday night he could outdo his previous achievements if Hadi Souan Somayli wins Saudi Arabia's first ever Olympic track medal - only the Gulf's second - when he competes in the 400 metres hurdles final. The 23-year-old, who is the Pan Arab Games champion, will start as the dark horse in the field having set the fastest time in Monday's semi-finals and broken the Asian record in the process. Somayli, who is a teacher and started his sports career as a footballer, sounded a confident note after the semi-final in which he beat, among others, world champion Fabrizio Mori of Italy and Poland's European titleholder Pawel Januszewski. "I found the race less difficult than the quarter-final on Sunday," he said. "I am still learning, but what I did on Monday was a good omen," he added. Understandably Hudson, who always wanted to be involved in sport and started by selling peanuts at the Oakland A's baseball games, is very pleased with his latest Saudi protege. "We are really proud of him and whatever he does in the final he has already become the first Saudi Arabian to make an Olympic track final," his Hudson told AFP. "It has been a real success story this season as John (who is his partner in Hudson Smith International) took two Saudi athletes on in April and they have both performed well. "Hamdan Bishi made the semi-finals of the 400m and at only 19 he has a lot of promise," he added. Hudson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer who represents the Saudi Royal family, said that Somayli had come on so much - he went out in the first round of the 400m hurdles in the world championships last year - because it was the first time that Smith had been able to spend a reasonable amount of time with him. "We've known Hadi a long time and he has come to us before," Hudson said. "However, we have never had a long time with him but this year he came to us for several months so John could really work on him," he added. Hudson, who made the Saudi connection because he roomed with the Saudi Athletics Federation president Emir Nawaf bin Mohamed at University 20 years ago and through him met up with Smith, said that hopefully this relationship would carry on and that more athletes would come their way. "It is evident that they have a real nest of talent there and it is important they have a chance to perform on the world stage and that is what we can do for them," he said. "The fact that Hadi and Hamdan have done so well will only encourage more of them to come over and who knows in a few years time they could be more famous than the American athletes in the stable!" he added.
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