It’s not often that a race at the World University Games goes viral, but something very special happened in China when Somalia’s Nasro Ali Abukar stepped to the blocks for a heat in the women’s 100m.
Somali runner finishes the saddest, slowest 100m of all time
This might be the worst 100m you’ll ever see.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Ali Abukar finished in 21.81, easily last in the heat and clearly having absolutely no running form. In fact, it didn’t even really appear that she’d ever run in a truly competitive race before, let alone against athletes who had been training at a high level.
This is not a case of simply not having the same resources as other countries, because Somalia has an incredible running culture to pull athletes from. Furthermore, the other athlete representing Somalia qualified for the final of the men’s 1500m with one of the top times.
So why did someone woefully unqualified make it all the way to China? There appears to be a pretty clear reason.
While we cannot confirm these claims of nepotism, it does appear that the Facebook post is unaltered and that Ali Abukar is related to a high-ranking member of the Somali Athletics Federation.
There has been no statement from the Somali government, nor are we likely to see one. The result sheet for the race says it all, really.
UPDATE: The Chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation has been suspended.
See More:
