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Speedy Salwa Eid Naser has got the taste for gold and can’t wait to put her talents to the test at the ultimate sporting arena, the Rio Olympics.
The Bahrain-born teenager, who has just turned 18, will arrive in Brazil fresh from a training camp in Bulgaria and Yusuf Ahmed, the chief de mission of the Bahrain Olympic Committee and executive manager of the Bahrain Athletics Association, is confident that she can make her presence felt in the highly-competitive 400m heats.
Yusuf: “Salwa’s performances in the past few competitions are a great indication that she will make a positive impression and make things happen. She has been training with her Bulgarian coach Yanko Bratanov in preparation. I see great things for her.”
The tiny teenager who lives in Riffa, who races wearing a traditional hijab, takes after her Nigerian mother, Ifeoma, who used to run the 100m and 200m sprints at school. However, it wasn’t until she was 11 that Salwa realised she shared her mother’s speed and skill.
At 16 the home-schooled youngster started training with Nigerian coach John Obeya, hitting the gym, adjusting her diet and lifting weights to get on the right track to success.
She first struck double gold in the 200m and 400m races at the 2014 Arab Junior Championships in Cairo. A month later, she secured a 400m best of 54.50s at the Asian Youth Olympic Games Trials in Bangkok.
At the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China, Salwa won a 400m silver medal after setting personal bests of 53.95s in her heat and then 52.74s in the final.
In 2015 she landed the Asian Youth 400m title in 53.02s and then clinched the 400m gold at the 2015 International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, achieving a career best of 51.50secs.
Last year she also competed against elite racers from across the globe in the sixth Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) World Games in Mungyeong, South Korea, and again brought home the 400m gold. Her most recent accomplishment was winning the 2016 Asian Indoor Championship in Doha.
Starting August 11, Salwa will be joining 35 other athletes in Rio representing the kingdom, part of the biggest party of athletes to qualify for the Olympics in Bahrain’s history.
Bahrain’s delegation will be headed by His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Work and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee President.
Mr Ahmed said: “We are so proud that for the first time in the history of Bahrain and Arab countries athletics federation’s 36 athletes will be competing in the Olympics. We have been working for more than four years preparing for such a feat.
“And, while some of them will be participating, we have high hopes for a few and expect to see them make it into either the final stages or on the podium.”
Thirty-two of the kingdom’s fastest sprinters and long distance runners will be competing in the athletics discipline, while two will participate in swimming, one in wrestling and another in shooting.
Salwa aims to be chasing close on the heels of Bahrain’s Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya, who won the women’s 400m gold medal at this year’s IAAF World Indoor Championship in Portland, US.
Other prominent athletes joining them are 1,500m Benson Seurei, Abbas Abubakar, the 400m Arab champion and Ruth Jebet, the 3,000m steeple chase world youth champion.
Mr Ahmed said: “These are some of the world’s strongest athletes and I expect medals from this group as they are determined and powerful.”
The runners have been training in different camps around the world including Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, Poland, Jamaica and Switzerland.
Sport lovers should also look out for Sadik Mikhou, marathon world bronze medal winner Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa, marathon Asian champion Shitaye Eshete Habtegebrel, marathon runner Rose Chelimo, 10,000m Asian champion Elhassan Elabbassi and 400m World Youth silver medal winner Ali Khamis Abbas.
Others to watch out for include Adam Batirov, winner of this year’s Asian Wrestling Championship in Thailand. The 31-year-old veteran wrestler, who has been training in Russia, will be competing in the under-70kg weight category.
Bahrain has also been awarded wild cards, which were given to three of its young talents, including Mahmood Haji in shooting, Fatema Abdulmohsen Almahmeed and Farhan Saleh in swimming.
More than 10,000 athletes will be competing in the first edition of the Olympic Games in South America.
