“National Disgrace”. The slowest runner in the Universiade turned out to be the niece of an official
Batraz Tomaev August 3, 2023, 15:20 Moscow time
Nasra Abukar Ali ran the sprint so slowly that a huge scandal broke out over her in Somalia.
China hosts the Universiade this summer. In fact, the student vacation was supposed to take place in 2021 and then in 2022. But the competition was postponed each time. And when 2023 came, it was decided that they would finally take place in the Celestial Empire, although the tournament was supposed to be organized by our Yekaterinburg. This is the technical problem.
A dream come true?
And at these same starts in Chengdu, China, the women’s no-nonsense 100m race garnered worldwide media attention.
It is about the athlete from Somalia: Nasre Abukar Ali.
In qualifying, the girl covered the distance in 21.81 seconds. It should be noted that the women’s world record is 10.49, the best achievement in the Student Games is 11 seconds and the winner of the race finished with a score of 11.58.
So the Somali race, to put it mildly, was not the best.
Social media users have already called the Somali runner the worst athlete ever. And the most attentive noticed that Abukar Ali began right under the inscription “Dreams come true.”
“Shame on the Country”
The story went viral instantly.
The journalists managed to find out that Nasra Abukar Ali is the niece of the president of the Somali athletics federation. And before being sent to the Summer Universiade, the girl received a magnificent farewell with the participation of the Chinese Ambassador and the Director General of the Somali Ministry of Sports.
So, in addition to the criticism, in the comments there are even calls for the Minister of Sports of an African country to resign, since he allowed such an unqualified athlete to appear in a big international start.
“How could they choose an unprepared girl to represent Somalia in the bid? This is really shocking and reflects poorly on our country’s reputation,” said Somali commentator Elham Garaad.
The Somali Athletics Federation has already launched an investigation into sending a non-competitive athlete to China. According to journalist Hassan Istilla, Somalia’s Sports Minister Mohamed Barre said he plans to prosecute the officials for “national dishonor”.
And more recently, Usain Bolt’s record was “broken”:
Usain Bolt’s record collapsed. The results of the last stage of the Diamond League before the 2023 World Cup
