ATHLETICS – FORMER world champion Salwa Eid Naser will be Bahrain’s lone competitor in this season’s Wanda Diamond League final this week, as reigning world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi will be skipping the event.
Naser will be racing in the women’s 400 metres after securing her qualification for the highly anticipated Weltklasse Zurich meeting in Switzerland, scheduled to take place tomorrow and Thursday.
The Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medallist is one of eight competitors in her race. The official entry lists for each discipline were released yesterday by organisers.
Naser is amongst a star-studded cast of sprinters, all of whom she has already faced multiple times this year. The field is headlined by reigning world and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, and it includes Natalia Bukowiecka from Poland, Amber Anning from Great Britain, Henriette Jaeger from Norway, Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands, Martina Weil from Chile, and Isabella Whittaker from the US.
Naser’s run is scheduled for Thursday night at 7.34pm, Bahrain time.
Meanwhile, Yavi was amongst the athletes to qualify for the women’s 3,000m steeplechase at the two-day meet, but she was not listed in the high-quality roster of 11 competitors.
Yavi’s non-participation was confirmed last night by a Bahrain Athletics Association official, who said that she is focusing on her title-defence at the upcoming World Athletics Championships, set to take place in Tokyo, Japan, from September 13 to 21.
Also qualified for Weltklasse Zurich but not set to compete is Bahrain’s long-distance specialist Birhanu Balew. He was amongst the top qualifiers in the men’s 5,000m standings of this year’s Wanda Diamond League, but the event has not been included on the meeting’s programme, despite it being one of the season’s Diamond Disciplines.
The Wanda Diamond League is the premier one-day meeting series held annually under World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body. Athletes score points over the season in their respective Diamond Disciplines with the aim of qualifying for the final, where they will compete for the prestigious Diamond Trophy of their event.
Bahrain athletes have so far lifted five Diamond Trophies in past seasons, with Naser winning twice, Yavi once, and Rio 2016 Olympics champion Ruth Jebet twice.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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