Mohammad Mutlak Khalif Al-Azemi (Arabic: محمد خلف العازمي ; born 16 June 1982) is a Kuwaiti middle distance runner who specialises in the 800 metres. His 800 m personal bests of 1:44.13 minutes outdoors and 1:48.93 minutes indoors are the Kuwaiti records for the event. He represented his nation at the Olympic Games in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and has also made four appearances at the World Championships in Athletics (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011). After a successful career as a youth, he rose to become one of Asia's best middle-distance runners. He was the silver medallist at the 2006 Asian Games and is a three-time Asian Indoor Games medallist. He became the Asian Indoor champion in 2010 and then completed an 800 m/1500 metres double at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships. Career Born in Kuwait City, he was successful in athletics from a young age and won the national under-14 cross country title for his club, Qadsia SC, in 1993. Given his natural talent, he was afforded special support from the Kuwaiti Athletic Federation. He achieved his first international medal at the 1998 Pan Arab Junior Athletics Championships, taking the 800 metres bronze medal. Further success came the following year as he took third in the event at the 1999 World Youth Championships in Athletics then won the silver medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships. His 2000 and 2001 seasons were disrupted by his need to focus on studying for his high school exams, but he still managed to win the gold medal at the Gulf Cooperation Council Championships, finish runner-up at the Arab Junior Championships, and win the 2001 Asian Junior bronze. Illness affected him in 2002, as dust in his home nation was causing him difficulties in training. As a result, he began training abroad instead and a partnership with a new coach, Algerian Abdelkarim Bensaid, saw Al-Azemi achieve Kuwaiti records in 2003. Making his first global appearance at senior level, he ran at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships and set a national record of 1:50.41 minutes. His outdoor season peaked in Budapest when he ran an outright national record time of 1:47.44 minutes. He ran again at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships and achieved a personal best in the outdoor season, running 1:45.25 minutes in Algiers. This was enough to gain him a place on the Kuwaiti Olympic team for the 2004 Athens