ATHLETICS – Bahrain's elite sprinter Edidiong Odiong posted her season’s best time en route to a strong third-place finish in the women’s 200 metres at the Tampere Meeting in Finland late Sunday night.
The track and field meet was a Bronze-level event on this year’s World Athletics Continental Tour, with top-class athletes featuring on the programme.
Odiong, who is a former under-20 world champion in the women’s 200m, secured her classification after finishing her race in 23.36 seconds. Her time was still far from her personal best over 200m of 22.43 seconds, which is a Bahraini record she set in 2022.
The 29-year-old finished behind winner Ann Marii Kivikas from Estonia, who came home in 23.22s, and runner-up Symone Darius of Liberia, who had a mark of 23.23s.
The race in Tampere was Odiong’s second competitive run in less than a week and third overall this month in Finland.
Odiong also ran the women’s 100m at the Joensuu Motonet GP – another Bronze-level meeting on the World Athletics Continental Tour – where she claimed second place while also clocking her season’s best.
Odiong finished the 100m final in 11.15s, narrowly being beaten by winner Nora Lindahl from Finland, who was classified with the same time.
Darius from Liberia was also in the run, and she took third in 11.27s.
Odiong’s mark was an improvement from her previous quickest of the year of 11.35s, which she set at the beginning of the month in a meeting in the Finnish city of Oulu.
Her personal best in the women’s 100m in 11.05s, which is also a Bahraini record.
Prior to the final at Joensuu, Odiong qualified for the race after taking second in the first of two opening-round heats, where she posted an 11.52s time.
Lindahl won the heat in 11.48s.
Odiong’s three straight appearances in Finland meets followed her sensational start to her outdoor campaign for 2026, which she kicked off with a gold medal as part of Bahrain’s women’s 4x100m relay team at the fourth GCC Games in Doha, Qatar last May.
Aside from competing on athletics’ international circuit this year, Odiong is expected to be amongst the top medal hopefuls of Bahrain’s athletics national team at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, scheduled for this September 19 to October 4.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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