ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S superstar sprinter and former world champion Salwa Eid Naser set a new Asian and national record in the women’s 300 metres last night in a leading athletics meeting in Poland.
Competing in the seldom-run race, which is not an Olympic event, 27-year-old Naser showed her impressive form in the Mityng Ambasadorow Bialostockiego i Podlaskiego Sportu, held in the Polish city of Krakow.
Naser was in the lead heading down the final bend but was overtaken down the home straight by race winner Natalia Bukowiecka of Poland. Bukowiecka clocked a time of 35.51 seconds in first place, while Naser followed not far behind in 35.85s.
Bassant Hemida of Egypt was third in 35.94s, while completing the classification were Aleksandra Formella of Poland in 37.22s, Paris Peoples of the US in 37.46s, Karolina Lozowska of Poland in 37.88s, and Tereza Petrzilkova of Czechia in 38.72s.
Naser’s mark beat the old Asian record of 36.79s, set last year by Arie Flores of Japan, as per records of Asian Athletics – track and field’s continental governing body.
It was also only the second time in her career that Naser raced the 300m. The previous time was in a meet in Bahrain in 2018, when she clocked a mark of 37.92 seconds. That mark was also the previous Bahrain best.
Naser, who is the 2019 world champion and Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medallist in the women’s 400m, competed in Krakow yesterday as part of her ‘Road to Tokyo’ – her final lead-up of four major competitions ahead of the World Athletics Championships 2025.
The highly anticipated worlds will be held next month in the close-to-70,000-capacity Japan National Stadium in the country’s capital, with Naser set to be a key member of Bahrain’s national team. More than 2,000 of the best track and field elite athletes representing around 200 nations are set to compete for medals across 49 events during the nine days of action from September 13 to 21.
Naser will next be getting back to competing in the 400m in her next three meetings – all as part of this year’s Wanda Diamond League – the premier one-day meeting series held annually under World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body.
She will first remain in Poland for the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in the city of Chorzow on Saturday later this week, and then compete on August 20 in the Athletissima Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland. Naser will then run in the Weltklasse Zurich meeting, also in Switzerland, on August 27 and 28, marking this year’s Wanda Diamond League.
There, qualified athletes will vie for Diamond Trophies as the yearly champions of their respective events. Naser is a two-time winner of the Diamond Trophy, having clinched the honour in both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Naser heads into these final four meetings prior to the worlds with a season’s best time in the 400m of 48.67s, which she clocked in April in a race in Kingston, Jamaica.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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