Somalia’s Sports Minister has suspended the chair of the national track and field federation after an untrained Somali sprinter went viral for finishing a 100m sprint in almost 22 seconds.
The announcement came after it was widely questioned how and why Nasra Abukar Ali, 20, came to compete in the FISU 2023 World University Games in Chengdu, China.
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Her time of 21.81 seconds was around 10 seconds slower than the other athletes, and has been called the slowest ever time in an international 100m race.
The ministry released a statement on Wednesday instructing the Somalia Olympic Committee to suspend national athletics federation chair Khadija Aden Dahir. This came after allegations that Ali was picked for the competition because she was related to her.
Mohamed Barre Mohamud, the Minister of Youth and Sports, said that the incident was one of an “abuse of power, nepotism, and defaming the name of the nation”.
He released a video on Wednesday after the footage went viral, saying the incident caused “misrepresentation and embarrassment” for the country.
He added that Ali had no background in running or any other sport, according to Al Jazeera.
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