The best BH athlete Amel Tuka found out his opponents in the semi-final race in the 800 meters at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Tuka is in the second semi-final group, and his opponents are Andreas Bube (Denmark), Rynardt van Rensburg (South Africa), Alfred Kipketer (Kenya), Boris Berian (USA), Brandon McBride (Canada), Mohammed Aman (Ethiopia) and Yassine Hethat (Algeria). Tuka will run in the eighth track.
Two best placed competitors from the three semi-final groups and two additional athletes with the best time will qualify in the finals.
From the competitors in the semifinal group, only Van Rensburg had a better time than Amel in the qualification race at the Olympics. Tuka finished the race with the time 1: 45.72, and South African competitor had the time 1: 45.67.
When looking at the whole season, the best time of Amel Tuka in this season was 1: 45:23. Behind him are only Bube (1:46:21) and Rensburg (1:46:15), while all the others from semifinal group had better time this season. Also, Kipketer ran with a time of 1:43:73 this season, which is a great result. McBride was near that time (1:43:95). Next is Berian (1:44:20), than Mohammed Aman (1:44:70) and Hethat (1:45:00).
When looking at the best results in the career, Amel Tuka is the best athlete in this group with the time 1:42:51, which he achieved last year in Monaco.
Thus, Amel has the quality to qualify for the finals, but looking at this season, the task will not be easy since the competition is really tough.
Semifinal is scheduled on Sunday morning between 3:08 am and 3:30 am.
(Source: O. T./Klix.ba)
