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With gold on her mind and sprinting in her veins, speedy Salwa Eid Naser spends her summer evenings training at the Bahrain National Stadium in preparation for her upcoming challenges.
The 17-year-old Bahraini will be competing for glory in the sixth Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) World Games in Mungyeong, South Korea, from October 2 to 11 against elite racers from across the globe.
Her Bulgarian coach Yanko Bratanov is confident in the Nigerian-born runner’s abilities and believes she has a lot more to offer, especially after clinching the 400-metre gold at the 2015 International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, and achieving a career best of 51.50secs.
Coach Bratanov said: “I can never say anything bad about Salwa. I’m proud of her achievements. She definitely has big potential for the future and can go very far if she continues to apply herself. She is small, she is young and I believe she can run very well.
“Her gold medal is only the beginning. She must understand that this is the start of something bigger and better. To continue achieving victories she must be serious. Her focus must revolve on sport and bringing pride to the kingdom she loves.
“She has won junior competitions before but this is a different level. Right now her focus should be on sport and running.
“She also has to remember not to be cocky and to stay grounded because that too can affect her performance.
“She has been training hard every day, not as much as usual obviously, due to the weather, but we plan on getting good results for the World Military Games.”
It doesn’t seem as though the tiny teenager, who races wearing a hijab, has an issue with staying on the right track as even her administrative supervisor, Fatema Al Modaweb, who travels with the girls during international championships confirmed Salwa’s dedication and drive to succeed.
Al Modaweb said: “She is such a sweet and quiet girl. She is always early as well as the first to practice and when she is done with competitions, she heads straight to her room to rest up for the next race. Salwa has a good head on her shoulder and is quite mature for her age. They say heroes and leaders are usually the strong, silent types and that is the case with Salwa.”
The youngster, from Riffa, takes after her Nigerian mother, Ifeoma, who used to run the 100m and 200m sprints at school. However, it wasn’t until she was 11 that Salwa realised she has her mother’s speed and skill.
Salwa, who was home-schooled, said: “I love to run and would always play tag with the kids in my area. I noticed that I would catch them rather quickly and I was faster than the other kids. I told my mum that I wanted to run but at first she said no. Maybe it’s because she didn’t think I would take it seriously but she changed her mind after I started running laps with my friends at the Bahrain National Stadium in Riffa.”
Her talent caught the attention of Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) national team manager Mohammed Abdulaziz who offered her a coach.
At 16 she started training with Nigerian coach John Obeya, hitting the gym, adjusting her diet and lifting weights.
When her mum heard that she would be running for Bahrain, she told her to go for it and Salwa has not looked back since.
She first struck double gold in the 200m and 400m at the 2014 Arab Junior Championships in Cairo. A month later, she secured a 400m best of 54.50s at the Asian Youth Olympic Games Trials in Bangkok. Then at last August’s Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, Salwa won a 400m silver medal after setting personal bests of 53.95s in her heat and then 52.74s in the final.
In May of this year, she landed the Asian youth 400m title in 53.02s.
Salwa hopes her winning ways will continue and thanked her family, the BAA, her coach and first deputy president of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and BAA president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa for all the encouragement and support.
She is also looking forward to learning a lot from world and Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton who will be training her and four other gold medal winners in March next year as part of a new project created by the IAAF.
Ashton selected Salwa because he was impressed by her performance at the Cali championships. He asked her to join him in Eugene, Oregon, in the US for an all-expenses-paid three-day training camp.
He said: “Even though she was getting overtaken by competitors on both sides, she stuck to her race to win it in the final 75 metres. Her training foresight is above average for her age. She is a display of overall maturity.”
After the camp, the athletes will stay on in Oregon as guests at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland.
The progress of the five will then be followed on the road to the 2016 IAAF World Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia.
Some may even return to Oregon to compete at the 2021 IAAF World Championships in Eugene when they will be in their early 20s.
Until then, Salwa aims to remain humble, make her Bahraini fans proud and do her best.
