Bangladesh's South Asian Games gold medallist Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu finished tenth out of 14 competitors in the men's 110m hurdles heats at the 15th Asian Games in Doha yesterday.

Mithu was seventh out of eight in Heat 1 where he got the chance to compete with his idol and world champion Xiang Liu of China. Liu, whose world record mark is 12.88s, finished ahead of the pack in 13.74, the third best timing in two heats.

Among eight finalists, Japanese hurdler Masato Naito made the best timing with 13.70s.

Mithu, who went to the Games with a 14.19s season's best record, clocked 14.27s, just 0.16s behind

the final qualifier. The young hurdler, who trained at the Tata Academy in India as preparation for the Asiad, however, would have made it to the final had he achieved his personal best timing of 14.10s. The final is slated for today.

He was the last competitor for Bangladesh in the Games' athletics competition, which concludes today.

On Sunday night, SA Games silver medallist Fouzia Huda Jui clinched 13th place out of 15 athletes in the women's long jump.

Jui only made three attempts with one failure and jumped 5.67 and 5.68 metres respectively in the last two efforts.

The gold went to Kumiko Ikeda (6.81m) of Japan and silver to India's Anju Bobby George (6.52m).

The chess team returned to winning ways when they beat Japan 2.5-0.5 in the fifth round of

the mixed team classical event on Sunday.

International Master Enamul Hossain Rajib won his first match in the 9-round Swiss League competition defeating Ryosuke Nanjo, Grandmaster Reefat Bin Sattar beat Shinya Kojima while Shamima Akhter Liza drew with Emiko Nakagawa.

Level on seven points, Bangladesh -- placed 13th among 21 teams -- were playing United Arab Emirates in the sixth round yesterday.

India led the table with 13 points.

The men's hockey team will face Malaysia in the first of the 5th-8th places classification matches this afternoon at the Al rayyan Hockey Stadium while India meet Taipei.

The two semifinals, Pakistan-China and South Korea-Japan, will be held later today.