ATHLETICS – Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser will be looking to add a second gold medal for the kingdom tonight in the athletics competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Naser will be running in the women’s 400 metres final, scheduled for a 9pm start, Bahrain time, at the 81,000 plus-capacity Stade de France.
She will be hoping to build on the success of fellow-Team Bahrain superstar Winfred Yavi, who earlier this week bagged the kingdom’s first gold at the French capital in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase.
Naser is also aiming to secure the maiden Olympic accolade of her already-illustrious career.
The 26-year-old 2019 world champion has been in sensational form leading up to the medal round. She won both her first-round and semi-final heats with ultra-quick times of under 50 seconds, including 49.91s in the opening stage and then 49.09s to book her ticket in the final.
She also ran three 400m races all in the sub-50s in international meetings leading up to the Olympics.
Naser has been allocated lane eight in tonight’s final. She is set to face a star-studded cast of competitors, including Tokyo 2021 silver-medallist and reigning world champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, reigning European champion Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland, and back-to-back world championships bronze-medallist Sada Williams of Barbados.
Also in the field are Paris 2024 4x400m mixed relay bronze-medallist Amber Anning of Great Britain, 4x400m mixed relay European gold-medallist Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland, 4x400m mixed relay world champion Alexis Holmes of the US, and European under-23 silver-medallist Henriette Jaeger of Norway.
Naser is in the final in her second Olympic participation. She also represented the kingdom in Rio 2016, but did not make it past the semis then.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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