ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S superstar sprinter and former world champion Salwa Eid Naser bagged the women’s 400 metres bronze medal yesterday at the World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.
Naser secured her podium place in her event’s star-studded and ultra-quick final, which was dubbed last night as ‘the greatest 400m we’ve ever seen’ by World Athletics, the sport’s international governing body.
Naser clocked her season’s best en route to clinching the second medal for Bahrain’s national team at this year’s worlds. Her bronze added to the silver claimed by fellow-athletics icon Winfred Yavi in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase.
Naser also came away with the fourth medal of her illustrious career, adding to her 400m world title in 2019 and another bronze medal as part of Bahrain’s mixed 4x400m relay team that same year, and her 400m silver medal from 2017.
“I’m a bit disappointed,” said Naser following her run. “I wanted to win because I have been working so hard.
“It’s just a blessing to come out here with a medal in the top race of the year. Look at the results of our final.”
Naser finished the final behind gold-medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the US and reigning Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic.
Running on a damp track at Japan’s nearly 70,000-capacity National Stadium, the trio were the favourites in the race, and they did not disappoint. They battled throughout the single-lap event and were separated by only inches as they headed around the final bend.
Down the home straight, however, McLaughlin-Levrone powered to the lead with Paulino right behind her, while Naser tried valiantly to challenge but had to settle for third place.
McLaughlin-Levrone struck gold in a new championship record of 47.78 seconds – her new personal best, the world lead, and the second-fastest mark of all-time which is not far from the current world record of 47.60s, set in 1985 by German Marita Koch. Paulino followed in 47.98s – the third-fastest mark of all-time – while Naser came home in 48.19s. It was the 27-year-old’s quickest mark of 2025 and it was just five-hundredths of a second slower than her personal best, which is also an Asian and national record.
“They say that I have to work harder,” said Naser, the Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medallist. “I think that very soon the women’s 400m world record will be broken. I never thought of it before, but after tonight’s race I can see that the world record is around the corner.
“I need to catch up with Sydney and keep doing what I’m doing.”
In fourth place yesterday was Natalia Bukowiecka from Poland in 49.27s, while Amber Anning from the UK came fifth in 49.36s and Roxana Gomez from Cuba sixth in 49.48s. Henriette Jaeger (49.74s) from Norway and Nickisha Pryce (49.97s) from Jamaica rounded out the classification in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Naser’s bronze medal brought Bahrain’s overall haul in the history of the world championships to 16. These include eight gold, four silver, and four bronze. The other bronze medals were claimed by the mixed relay squad in 2019, Eunice Kirwa in the women’s marathon in 2015, and Yusuf Saad Kamel in the men’s 800m in 2009.
Also yesterday in Tokyo, Bahrain’s Nelly Jepkosgei bowed out of further contention from the women’s 800m.
She could not advance past the first-round heats, where she finished fifth in the third of seven races with a time of two minutes 02.79 seconds. The 34-year-old ranked 47th amongst the 55 athletes who took part in the stage.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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