Naser targets world title in Tokyo

TDT | Manama

Email : hussainm@newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s sprint star Salwa Eid Naser has landed in Tokyo ahead of her bid for gold at the World Athletics Championships 2025, which begin on Saturday.

The 27-year-old will contest the women’s 400 metres, an event in which she became world champion in 2019 and claimed Olympic silver in Paris last year. She begins her campaign with the heats on Saturday, followed by the semi-finals on Monday and the final on Wednesday.

Naser travelled with coach Jose Ludwig Rubio, alongside Uruguay’s Deborah Rodriguez and the Dominican Republic’s Liranyi Alonso. She missed the 2023 World Championships in Budapest due to injury but arrives in Japan in superb form, having captured her third Diamond Trophy last month in Zurich, outpacing reigning world and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino.

Bahrain has sent an eight-athlete team to Tokyo. Alongside Naser are fellow stars Winfred Yavi, the reigning world and Olympic champion in the steeplechase; 2016 world indoor champion Kemi Adekoya; Nelly Jepkosgei; Tigest Gashaw, a former U18 world champion; Eunice Chumba; Shitaye Eshete; and Birhanu Balew, the country’s sole male representative.