Nepotism? Power abuse? Or simply a sporting debacle? The (negative) record of 21”81 in the 100 meters of the Somali athlete Nasra Ali Abukar. The athlete participated in a battery of qualification of the women’s 100 meters Universiade underway in Chinafinishing in eighth and last place but, above all, registering one of the worst performances ever in discipline in an international competition. Test video, which also earned her the fame, attributed by various newspapers of “slowest athlete in the world“, quickly made the rounds of the web.
From the very first moments of the race, the 20-year-old arouses some perplexity: before the start, at the starting blocks, he seems to turn around towards the others to figure out where to place your running shoes; then, given the slowness, stay cut off out from the frame video. So much so that in the end, after the Brazilian Gabriela Mourao has already crossed the finish line, the camera goes back and frames her at the end of the race, decidedly not very technical.
An untrained runner from Somalia has reportedly set a new record for the slowest 100m sprint after competing at the @FISU World University Games ????
Nasra Abukar Ali posted a time of 21.81 seconds, finishing a full 10 seconds behind the winner⏱ pic.twitter.com/95KOoCrapm
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 3, 2023
The sporting case has quickly become political too. Somali Sports Minister, Mohamed Barre Mohamud apologized for the embarrassment and called the performance “a shame” for her and for all Somalia, asking to start an investigation. It thus emerged that the athlete is the granddaughter of vice president of the Somali Athletics Federation, Khadija Aden Dahir and that the vice president himself, before the Universiade began, had already given his niece a summons, publishing a photo of her and congratulating her on being summoned to the sporting event.
At least the attitude ambiguous it cost Aden Dahir dearly: the vice president was suspended from his post and the sports minister harshly criticized him, accusing him of abuse of power, nepotism and “defamation of the nation’s name on the international stage”.