Doha: Harem Ali earned war-ravaged Iraq a bronze medal on Monday, ending the country's two-decade medal drought at the Asian Games.
Ali, a 21-year-old Kurd from the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, dedicated his medal in the 77kg weightlifting class to Iraq: "This medal is to all Iraqis from the north to the south.
"I would like to send a message to all people in Iraq that I am part of Iraq, even though I am from Kurdistan. I want to make the Iraqi people happy," added Ali.
His coach Khudayer Abbas Basha translated the comments into Arabic for a swarm of more than two dozen journalists.
"With this medal we hope to dry the tears of the Iraqi people and make them smile after a lot of suffering," said Basha. "We thank God for this medal and we hope that it can place a smile on the faces of Iraqis." China's Li Hongli won the gold medal while South Korea's Lee Jeong-jae took silver on a countback from Ali.
The pair lifted the same total weight, but Lee had the lighter bodyweight. Ali has had to move his training base to southern Iraq because of the escalating security problem in Baghdad.