ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S superstar sprinter and former world champion Salwa Eid Naser narrowly missed out on a victory yesterday in a hotly contested women’s 400 metres at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland.
Naser led for most of the race but was overtaken down the home straight by reigning world and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic.
She thus had to settle for the runner-up spot in the ultra-quick event, which was part of a star-studded meeting on this year’s Wanda Diamond League – World Athletics’ premier one-day competition series.
Naser had an impressive start in the run and was the clear leader coming around the final bend. She maintained a strong stride but Paulino put in a devastating kick to the finish, and she pipped Naser at the line by a mere nine-hundredths of a second.
Paulino, who is also the number one-ranked athlete in the world in the women’s 400m, triumphed in a time of 49.18 seconds, while Naser, the Paris 2024 silver-medallist, followed in 49.27s.
Henriette Jaeger from Norway was third in 49.83s, while Amber Anning of Great Britain finished fourth in 50.11s. Paris Olympics bronze-medallist Natalia Bukowiecka of Poland came fifth in 50.16s, while completing the nine-runner final classification from sixth through ninth, respectively, were Alexis Holmes (50.18s) of the US, Martina Weil (50.28s) from Chile, Lieke Klaver (50.53s) from the Netherlands, and Sada Williams (50.65s) from Barbados.
Naser competed in the women’s 400m for the ninth time this outdoor season and third time in a Wanda Diamond League meeting. She won the first occasion in Doha, Qatar, last May and then came second in Paris, France – again behind Paulino – in June.
Naser’s mark in Chorzow was not far from her season’s best time of 48.67 seconds, which she set in April in Kingston, Jamaica. Her personal best is 48.14s, which is an Asian and national record set by Naser in 2019.
Naser, who is the 2019 world champion and Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medallist in the women’s 400m, competed at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial as part of her ‘Road to Tokyo’ – her final lead-up to the World Athletics Championships 2025.
She will next run in two other Wanda Diamond League meetings – first this Wednesday in the Athletissima Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, and then at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting, also in Switzerland, on August 27 and 28, which will be this year’s Wanda Diamond League final.
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.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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