SOMALIA: After dodging bullets for many years, Somali athletes look forward to competing at the London Olympics

Record ID: 330904

  • Title: SOMALIA: After dodging bullets for many years, Somali athletes look forward to competing at the London Olympics
  • Date: 17th July 2012
  • Summary: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SOMALIA ATHLETICS TEAM MEMBERS PRACTICE AT THE NATIONAL STADIUM MORE OF ATHLETES TRAINING AT THE STADIUM SPECTATORS WATCHING ON THE SIDELINE SOMALIA NATIONAL ATHLETICS TEAM STRETCHING
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA86IXWHVEQZNCS3RQW9RJ9FONR
  • Story Text: Somalia government officials were joined by family members and athletics supporters at the airport when two of Somalia's athletes were preparing to depart ahead of the London Olympics.
    No Somali athletes achieved a qualifying standard for the Olympics, but each national Olympic committee is entitled to two places -- one for a man and one for a woman -- in athletics.
    The two, Mohamed Hassan Mohamed and ZamZam Mahamed Farah have been awarded wildcards to represent their country.
    With pride and honour at stake, the athletes walked to their supporters and shook their hands.
    Supporters at the airport waved their national flag and wished the athletes the very best of luck.
    When training for the 1,500 metres, Mohamed Hassan Mohamed had in the past to dodge gunfire and mortar shells in one of the world's most dangerous cities. Now he and 400 metres competitor Zamzam Mohamud Farah will be training in the buildup to London 2012 with the Qatari team in the Northern Ireland capital city of Belfast.

    "I promise to bring back prestige, dignity and anything that will make all Somalis happy, especially a win that they have never seen for the last 20 years. My hopes are very high because we have been training for the last the six months," said Mohamed Hassan Mohamed just before he boarded an aircraft at Mogadishu airport.
    For twenty years the capital's rutted roads were the frontline in running battles between feuding warlords and later Islamist insurgents battling to overthrow a government propped up by foreign forces and cash.
    ZamZam is representing her country as the coutnry's only female athlete in the games. Her personal best stands at around 58 seconds for the 400 metres.
    The Women's world record stands at 47.60, a gaping difference that leaves her unlikely to progress beyond the opening round.
    That does not bother her much as just going to London by itself is an achievement and a dream come true.

    "My emotions are high as I have achieved what I have dreamt of for a very long time and am happy to be attending and participating at the London Olympics games," ZamZam said.
    According to Somalia National Athletics coach Ahmed Ali Abiikar, years of fighting in his country did not dampen the spirit of athletes and they are ready to announce their return during the games.

    "Today it is the time we show the world that Somali athletics is still alive even if we have been living in war-torn city Mogadishu," said National Athletics coach Ahmed Ali Abiikar.
    Before going departing for London, the athletes trained at Konis stadium which for years was an Al Shabaab rebel training camp until the al Qaeda-linked combatants fled the capital in August last year. Bullet holes pepper the stadium's concrete stands, which lie in mounds of rubble in places. A year ago, a work-out meant running through the city's streets dodging gun-fire and mortar shells in one of the world's most dangerous cities.
    That meant competing for space with patrolling armoured troop carriers, donkey carts and mountainous piles of garbage. Roadside bombs have become a growing danger.
    In April, a suicide bomber blew herself up at a ceremony in the city's national theatre, killing the popular head of Somalia's Olympic committee and at least five others.
    Somalia has never won a medal a the Olympic games.
    Its best performance came in 1996 when its most renowned athlete, Abdi Bile, took sixth place in 1,500 metres in Atlanta.
    At the time, militia fighters in the lawless capital dubbed their machine gun-mounted pickup trucks "Abdi Biles" in a typically Somalia mark of respect for the runner's power and speed.
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