Somali sprinter finishes 100m race in 21.81sec, sports minister apologises

She is allegedly the niece of the Somali Athletics Federation's chairperson.

Ilyda Chua| August 03, 2023, 03:12 PM

Somalia's sports minister has publicly apologised after a female sprinter representing the country at the World University Games in China on Aug. 1 took over 21 seconds to finish a 100m race.

A video of the woman, 20-year-old Nasra Abukar Ali, went viral on social media.

Slowest ever time

Nasra Abubakar clocked 21.81 seconds, 10.23 seconds slower than the first-place winner who clocked 11.58 seconds.

She came in dead last.

In a video clip circulating on social media, the seemingly untrained racer immediately fell into last place, quickly disappearing from the camera's frame.

Despite that, she did a little skip as she crossed the finish line.

According to a professor of exercise sciences quoted by Insider, her timing was undoubtedly slow.

"It wouldn't be a good high school time, no matter what high school you're at," he said.

Twitter user Elham Garrad, who posted a clip of the video, called it "disheartening".

"It's truly shocking and reflects poorly on our country internationally," she wrote.

Minister apologises

In response, Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Barre Mohamud said his ministry did not know how she was selected to compete in the games.

He added in a statement that an investigation had found that Nasra Abukar was neither an athlete nor a runner.

According to Reuters, the ministry separately released a statement and called for the Somalia Olympic Committee to suspend Khadijo Aden Dahir, chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation.

The chairwoman had "engaged in acts of abuse of power, nepotism, and defaming the name of the nation in (the) international arena," said the minister in a statement.

Nasra Abukar is allegedly the chairwoman's niece, according to social media users.

Photos from Elham Garrad/Twitter