ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S elite athletes continued to arrive in Tokyo, Japan, ahead of the World Athletics Championships 2025, which gets underway today.
The distance-running trio of former under-18 world champion Tigest Gashaw, Eunice Chumba, Shitaye Eshete, were among the latest to reach the Japanese capital.
They will be going for gold tomorrow in the women’s marathon, which is scheduled to get underway at 1.30am, Bahrain time. It will be held along the streets of the Japanese capital.
Gashaw heads into the race with a personal best of two hours 24 minutes and 39 seconds and a season’s best of 2:24:44. Chumba’s top marks are 2:20:02 all-time, a Bahraini record, and 2:21:35 for 2025, while Eshete has a personal and season’s best of 2:20:32.
They will be going up against a high-quality field, which includes Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, who has the fastest time in the world this year of 2:15:50. Assefa was also the silver-medallist at last year’s Paris 2024 Olympics.
Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi from Morocco is the lone medallist from the 2023 worlds who is competing. She won bronze then.
Also already in Tokyo for Bahrain is superstar sprinter and 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser, who will also be running tomorrow in the women’s 400 metres heats.
The round’s races are scheduled to start at 1.25pm, Bahrain time.
The Paris 2024 silver-medallist is one of the favourites to medal in the event, and she has been in impressive form recently. Last month, Naser won the third Diamond Trophy of her career at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland.
She is expected to make it to the semi-finals, which will take place on Monday, while the final is set for Wednesday.
Naser did not compete in the previous edition of the world championships due to injury.
Meanwhile, also set to fly the kingdom’s flag in Tokyo are reigning world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi, 2016 world indoor champion Kemi Adekoya, Nelly Jepkosgei, and Birhanu Balew, who is the kingdom’s lone competitor in men’s events.
Yavi will be running in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase which begin with the heats on Monday, when Adekoya will also be in action in the heats of the women’s 400m hurdles.
Jepkosgei will begin her medal campaign on Thursday in the women’s 800m, while Balew will be running in the men’s 5,000m heats on Friday.
Bahrain have won 14 medals in past editions of the world championships, including eight gold, three silver, and three bronze medals.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
AloJapan.com