ATHLETICS – Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser stormed into the final of the women’s 400 metres yesterday at the World Athletics Championships 2025, currently being held in Tokyo, Japan.
Naser won the second of three semi-final heats with a sensational performance to set up a mouth-watering showdown with some of her fiercest rivals in the medal round, scheduled to take place tomorrow.
Naser was once again in fine form and remains one of the favourites to climb the 400m podium.
She clocked the round’s fourth-best time yesterday, and will be amongst a high-quality field in the title-deciding race, which also includes reigning world and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the US, who clocked the fastest time in the world this year en route to winning yesterday’s first semis heat.
Tomorrow’s final is scheduled for a 4.24pm start, Bahrain time.
The other runners in the field are Nickisha Pryce from Jamaica, Henriette Jaeger from Norway, Roxana Gomez from Cuba, Amber Anning from the UK, and Natalia Bukowiecka from Poland.
Naser will be running in late seven.
In her semi-final yesterday, the 27-year-old superstar sprinter had a strong start.
She was already in the lead after the first 100m, and maintained her impressive and powerful stride throughout her run.
The 2019 world champion enjoyed a comfortable lead heading around the final bend, and after going solo down the home straight, took her foot off the gas over the closing metres.
Naser won in a time of 49.47 seconds. She was followed by Gomez in 49.78s to claim the other automatic qualifying berth for the final from their heat.
Isabella Whittaker from the US finished third in 50.20s, while Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands was fourth in 50.25s.
Stacey Ann Williams of Jamaica came firth in 50.39s, while rounding out the classification from sixth through eighth, respectively, were Printassia Johnson from the Bahamas in 50.81s, Mercy Adongo Oketch from Kenya in 51.36s, and Victoria Ohuruogo from the UK in 51.65s.
None of those other athletes finishing behind Naser and Gomez qualified for the final as lucky losers.
The first heat was won by Bukowiecka, who was the 400m silver-medallist in the 2023 worlds and the bronze-medallist behind Naser at last year’s Paris Olympics.
Bukowiecka triumphed in her season’s best of 49.67s, while Paulino followed as the runner-up in 49.82s.
Jaeger came third in 49.87s and was one of the two lucky losers to advance from the semis.
The third heat was claimed by McLaughlin-Levrone in a world leading time of 48.29s. Anning followed in 49.38s, while Pryce was third in 49.46s as the round’s other lucky loser.
In tomorrow’s final, Naser will be aiming to become a double world champion for Bahrain, adding to her title from 2019.
She is also aiming to secure her fourth medal from the worlds, having also bagged the 400m silver in 2017 and a bronze medal in the mixed 4x400m relay in 2019.
Naser has already claimed a major accolade this season after lifting the third Diamond Trophy of her career at the 2025 Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland, held last month.
She heads into tomorrow’s medal race with a season’s best of 48.67s, and a personal best of 48.14s, which is the third-fastest mark of all-time and is an Asian and national record.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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