Salwa clocks season’s best in win

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’s elite sprinter and 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser powered to a spectacular victory while clocking her season’s best time in the women’s 400 metres at the Meeting Iberoamericano, held at Estadio Iberoamericano in Huelva, Spain.

The event was a bronze-level meet on this year’s World Athletics Continental Tour.

Appearing on track for only the fifth time this outdoor season, Salwa raced to an impressive win in a time of 49.78 seconds.

It was her best mark of 2023 and her first of this campaign under 50.00 seconds.

Salwa’s time was also the fifth-fastest in the world this season, as the 25-year-old Bahraini inched closer to matching the world lead of 48.98s held by Marileidy Paulino.

She also came closer to matching her personal best of 48.14 seconds, which is also an Asian and Bahraini record, which Salwa set in 2019.

Salwa was competing in the first of three final races in the 400m at the Huelva meeting.

She finished ahead of Miranda Charlene Coetzee of South Africa, who was the runner-up in 50.90s, while Anna Kielbasinska of Poland was third in 51.29s.

Sharlene Mawdsley of Ireland came fourth in 51.34s, Catia Azevedo of Portugal fifth in 51.42s, and Alica Mangione sixth in 51.75s.

Rounding out the final classification were Camille Laus of Belgium in 51.76s and Madeline Price of Canada in 52.60s.

Salwa was the lone Bahraini participating in the Spain event. She has already participated in meetings held this year in the US and Chile, running in 100m, 200m and 400m races.

Salwa is continuing to get ready for a packed season of competitions, which include the World Athletics Championships in Budapest this August, and the Hangzhou Asian Games in China this September and October.

She is one of the Kingdom’s leading international athletes.

Aside from her women’s 400m world title which she won in 2019, Salwa is also an Olympic Games silver-medallist and a former world junior champion, both in the same distance.