Bahrain stars set for athletics worlds

TDT | Manama           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A small but star-studded national athletics team will be flying the Kingdom’s flag at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest later this month. The Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) has named a six-member squad that will be going for gold at the event.

It is scheduled to take place at the Hungarian capital’s National Athletics Centre from 19 to 27 August. The Bahrainis include three former world champions, and others who have won titles at the continental and Arab levels.

Sprinter and 2019 world champion in the women’s 400 metres, Salwa Eid Naser, will be spearheading the team. She will be joined by 2017 world champion in the women’s marathon, Rose Chelimo, who was also the silver-medallist in the same event at the 2019 worlds; as well as 2016 world indoor champion in the women’s 400m, Oluwakemi Adekoya.

Former Asian Games gold-medallist and two-time Asian champion, Winfred Yavi, and ex-Asian Games gold-medallist and Asian champion, Birhanu Balew, are also on the squad. Bahrain’s roster is completed by long-distance specialist Abdi Ali Gelelchu.

The line-up was confirmed last night by BAA technical director Tahar Righi. Repeat Salwa will be looking for a repeat of her 2019 world title success when she runs the 400m in Budapest.

She has had a strong season so far, running the eighth-fastest time in the world over the distance of 49.78 seconds last May, although the 25-year-old is still far from her personal best of 48.14s.

Rose too will be aiming for a second world championship gold medal in the women’s marathon. The 34-year-old stepped onto the podium in two of the last three editions of the worlds, having not participated in the previous event in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon, in the US.

Oluwakemi will be competing in the women’s 400m hurdles as she looks to add an outdoor title to her indoor crown from 2016. She is also a multiple Asian Games gold-medallist, and so far this season has run a 54.36s in her event, good enough for 14th best in the world.

Winfred, who has been one of Bahrain’s top athletes in recent years, is determined to win her first world title. The 23-year-old will be competing in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, where she currently holds the world’s fourth-fastest time of the season of nine minutes 04.38 seconds.

Winfred is, however, capable of clocking a sub nine-minute mark, as she set her personal best of 8:56.55 just last season. Balew will be the lone Bahraini athlete who is scheduled to compete in two distances in Budapest. He will be going for gold in both the men’s 5,000m and men’s 10,000m races.

He has clinched continental gold in the 5,000m in the past, and will be aiming to stun the world with an unprecedented long-distance double. Gelelchu is one of the darkhorses for Bahrain at the world championships. He has yet to capture any major accolades for the Kingdom on the international level, but will be hoping for his first this year when he competes in the men’s marathon.