Two members of the Palestinian national Olympic team participated in qualifying rounds in their respective sports on Friday and Saturday at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil- runner Muhammad Abu Khousa and swimmer Mary al-Atrash.

Abu Khoussa finished in third place during the men’s 100m preliminaries in a time of 10.82 seconds, and moves onto the next round. Abu Khousa was ranked six out of 21 total competitors, qualifying him for the first round of the men’s 100m, set to take place at 6 p.m. Saturday.

https://twitter.com/khalidmohib755/status/763355062785703936

According to the Palestinian media envoy to the Olympic committee, Abu Khousa said he was very happy with his accomplishment. However, he expressed concern at the fact that he had pulled his hamstring during the preliminaries, saying that it will likely affect him during the coming round.

Palestinian swimmer, Mary al-Atrash, finished third in the Women’s 50m free-style race on Friday, clocking in at 28.76 seconds. The 22-year-old finished with a ranking of 62 out of 91 swimmers, but failed to qualify for the next round.

Palestinian Swimmer, Mary Al Atrash, won 3rd place at #RioOlympics2016 making us and #Palestine so proud ❤ pic.twitter.com/NhCc16YJMm

— Yosra Alsarraj (@Yosrasarraj) August 13, 2016

Al-Atrash said that despite not moving forward in the games, she was very happy to have broken her record of 29.91 seconds, and will continue improving her time.

(PC, MA’AN)