BAHRAIN’S Salwa Eid Naser was once again in the global spotlight last night as she set a new national record en route to claiming a spectacular victory in the women’s 400 metres at the Bauhaus-Galan athletics meeting at the historical Stockholm Olympic Stadium in Sweden.
The event was part of this year’s International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League, which features many of the world’s leading elite athletes in track and field.
Salwa raced to her third successive 400m victory in less than two weeks, all of which came as part of Diamond League meets. Her new Bahraini mark was also a personal best.
Also putting on fine performances for Bahrain in Stockholm were Sadik Mikhou in the men’s 1,000m, Birhanu Balew in the men’s 5,000m, and Mohammed Ayoub Tiouali in the men’s 1,500m.
Mikhou and Balew both finished in second place in their respective races and each also set a new personal best, while Tiouali was a solid fifth in his event.
In the women’s 400m, Salwa once again lived up to her billing as one of global athletics’ rising stars by topping yet another highly competitive eight-runner field.
Salwa completed her race in 49.84 seconds. She was the only runner to go below the 50s mark as she beat her old personal best of 49.88s. The result added to her other fine victories the past fortnight in Rome and Oslo.
Salwa commented after the race: “It was a good performance on the back of Oslo but I am exhausted in the heat. “I am very pleased with my personal best. I am happy with my time. I just tried to execute my race. I do not check who is coming for me, I just go.”
Phyllis Francis of the US finished in second place in 50.07s while her countryman Jessica Beard came third in 50.55s.
On the distaff, Mikhou put on a fine challenge for the win in the 1,000m but came up just short in the end. He completed his race in a new personal best of two minutes 16.09 seconds for second overall. Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich of Kenya claimed a fine win in a world leading time of 2:14.88.
“I am very happy to end up with a second place in this race,” said Mikhou. “I felt really strong during the whole race, it was a perfect race for me and it felt nice to run a personal best.”
Jake Wightman of Great Britain was third in 2:16.27.
In the men’s 5,000m, Bahrain’s Balew was pipped just barely at the finish, where only two-tenths of a second was the difference. Balew completed his race in a new personal best time of 13:04.25, just beaten by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega in 13:04.05. Abadi Hadis, also of Ethiopia, was third in 13:06.76.
In the men’s 1,500m, Tiouali completed his race in 3:46.42 for fifth. The winner was Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway in 3:37.42, while Jordan Williamsz of New Zealand was second in 3:38.30 and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Canada third in 3:38.32.