Bahrain's Salwa ‘90 per cent’ out of athletics worlds

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s former world champion sprinter Salwa Eid Naser will likely be forced to withdraw from participating in the World Athletics Championships 2023, which get  underway on Saturday in Budapest.

According to a Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) official, Salwa is nursing an injury which will “90 per cent” prevent her from competing in the highly anticipated meeting.

The official said that Salwa’s doctor will give a final decision today on her participation.

The 25-year-old was to be one of Bahrain’s leading hopefuls for a medal at this year’s worlds.

Aiming for a repeat of her 2019 world title success in the women’s 400m, Salwa had a strong outdoor season prior to her injury. She had run the eighth-fastest time in the world over the distance of 49.78 seconds last May, although is still far from her personal best of 48.14s.

Salwa was to spearhead a small but star-studded national athletics team that will be flying the Kingdom’s flag at worlds, which are to take place at the Hungarian capital’s National Athletics Centre until 27 August.

Salwa was to join two other former world champions, namely 2017 women’s marathon gold medal winner Rose Chelimo and 2016 world indoor champion in the women’s 400m Oluwakemi Adekoya.

The Bahrain team in Budapest also features former Asian Games gold-medallist and two-time Asian champion Winfred Yavi; ex-Asian Games gold-medallist and Asian champion Birhanu Balew, and long-distance specialist Abdi Ali Gelelchu.

Rose will be going for another gold in the women’s marathon, while Oluwakemi will be competing in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Winfred will run the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, while Balew will be contesting two distances—the men’s 5,000m and men’s 10,000m. Gelelchu will be aiming to surprise the field in the men’s marathon.