Athletics: President of the Somali Federation suspended after a 100m that went viral

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Somali Athletics Federation President Khadijo Aden Dahir has been suspended following a scandal involving an unqualified athlete.

The video had gone around the world. Nasra Abukar Ali ridiculed Somalia by taking more than 20 seconds to cover a distance of 100 meters on Tuesday August 1. The 20-year-old athlete represented her country at the World University Games in Chengdu, China.

In a sequence widely relayed on social networks, the sprinter appeared in “athletic poor form”, taking more than 22 seconds to complete the race, far behind the other athletes who all finished in less than 12 seconds.

A poor performance that sparked mockery and indignation on the web, especially for a country where athletics is the king sport. Enough to put a flea in the ear of the Somali authorities who have launched an investigation to shed light on this special case. And the results revealed that Nasra Abukar Ali “had no experience in running or any other sport“Somali Sports Minister Mohamed Barre Mohamud said on Wednesday.

Faced with these disturbing revelations, the president of the Athletics Federation, Khadijo Adan Dahir, was suspended from office for ” abuse of power, nepotism and defamation of the name of the nation in the international arena ” by sending someone who is not ” neither sportswoman nor runner to represent Somalia. ” while the lady would be a member of the family of the pseudo-athlete.

” We apologize to the public for the embarrassment this has caused the country and are investigating how this happened.”Mohamed Barre Mohamud said at a press conference on Wednesday evening, denouncing a “ unfair selection process in which the department had no role. She will have to answer for her actions in court.

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Nasro Abukar Ali reportedly ran with an injury

In an interview with a Somali journalist published Thursday on Facebook and transcribed by ici.radio-canada.ca, Nasro Abukar Ali explained his poor performance by a “sprain” suffered before the race. On accusations of her relationship to the president of the Somali Athletics Federation, the athlete swore that she had been selected in a competitive process by a university sports association.

“They accuse the president for nothing. They are looking for ways to tarnish his image and get him out of office. She has nothing to do with it“, she indicated. The ministry knew that I was going to participate in the race and I met them at the airport with the Chinese ambassador to Somalia,” she added. ” These negative comments (on social networks) started when I left Mogadishu and I decided to ignore them“, she concluded.

This episode highlights management and transparency issues within the Somali Athletics Federation, as well as the lack of due diligence in the selection process of athletes representing the country in international competitions. Strict measures must be taken to prevent such situations in the future and to ensure the integrity of Somali sport and athletes.

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