Ismail Al-Sabiani

Who is Ismail Al-Sabiani?

Ismail Al-Sabani is a Saudi Arabian track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres.

He began competing internationally at sixteen years old, running in the heats of the 800 metres at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics. His first major senior tournament came the following year in the form of the 2006 Asian Games. Although he was eliminated in the heats of the 400 m, he won the gold medal in the 4×400 m relay with the Saudi team including Hamdan Odha Al-Bishi, Hamed Hamadan Al-Bishi and Mohammed Al-Salhi. Al-Sabani secured a second relay gold at the 2007 Asian Athletics Championships and was the youngest athlete in the 400 m final, finishing in seventh. He was selected for the 2007 Pan Arab Games later in the year and broke 47 seconds for the first time with a personal best run of 46.99 sec in the heats. He also won another gold with the Saudi relay team.

Al-Sabani started the next year at the 2008 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships and helped the relay team to victory in a Championship record time of 3:14.25. At the 2008 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Jakarta he set a new best of 46.33 sec to take the 400 m gold and also won the relay bronze medal. Following this, he competed on the global stage at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and reached the semi-finals of the 400 m.