In Somalia, the disastrous “performance” of a 100-meter runner creates controversy – Liberation

Images of Nasro Abukar Ali at a competition in China have damaged the country’s image, say politicians. Some suspect that his selection is due to his relationship with the president of the athletics federation, who was dismissed.

The images of the athlete completely off the ground in competitions where only sporting regulations or compulsive obstinacy allowed them to land. Some have gleaned there, in the absence of titles, a more or less fleeting glory. Among the most famous figures, the Guinean swimmer Eric Moussambani, star of the Sydney Games with his 100 m freestyle engulfed in 1′52, twice as slow as the best swimmers. Before him, there was the British ski jumper Michael Edward, better known as Eddie The Eagle who, against all odds, managed to line up at the Calgary Games (in 1988) where he finished twice last in the 70m and 90m. Or, at the same Olympics, the Jamaican bobsledders passed on to posterity thanks to the film Rasta Rocketwith a much greater success than that of the biopic devoted to the British loser of the springboards. It is unlikely that the Somali athlete Nasro Abukar Ali, whose images of a laborious 100m (to be polite) during the Summer University Games in Chengdu (China) made the rounds and the joy of the networks, knows the same fate.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports should step down. It’s disheartening to witness such an incompetent government. How could they select an untrained girl to represent Somalia in running? It’s truly shocking and reflects poorly on our country internationally. pic.twitter.com/vMkBUA5JSL

— Elham Garaad ✍︎ (@EGaraad_) August 1, 2023

The story, sad for her, turns into a political scandal in Somalia. Sports authorities have suspended the president of their athletics federation, Khadijo Adan Dahir, accused of having ridiculed the country by selecting the young woman: “After obtaining evidence indicating how Nasro Abukar Ali […] has been selected, we have confirmed that Khadijo Adan Dahir has committed an abuse of power and nepotism by selecting a person without any sports training,” said the president of the Somali National Olympic Committee, Abdullahi Ahmed Tarabi. Mohamed Barre Mohamud, Minister of Youth and Sports, had previously drawn by demanding the dismissal of the official guilty “of having defamed the name of the nation on the international scene by sending someone who is neither athletic nor runner, to represent Somalia. We apologize to the public for the embarrassment this has caused the country and we are investigating to find out how this happened,” he said, denouncing “an unfair selection process” in which “the ministry does not had no role.

Abuse of power, nepotism. It did not take more for some to say that the runner was a member of the family of the president of the federation and that only this family had sent him to Chengdu. What the interested party denied. In an interview with a Somali journalist posted Thursday on Facebook, Nasro Abukar Ali explained his poor performance by a “sprain” contracted before the race. Asked about her selection and the accusations of kinship with Khadijo Adan Dahir, she claimed to have “been selected through a competitive process by a university sports association”. “They accuse the president for nothing. They are looking for ways to tarnish her image and make her leave her post, she has nothing to do with that,” she said, assuring: “The ministry knew that I was going to participate in the race and I met at the airport with the Chinese Ambassador to Somalia”. A country in the Horn of Africa plagued by an Islamist insurgency and a historic drought, Somalia is ranked last out of 180 nations on the NGO Transparency International’s corruption index in 2022.