Another Nigerian has made history by running the third-fastest time in the world to win the 400m World title for Bahrain.
In what has been described as the biggest upset of the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Salwa Eid Naser defeated the race favourite Shaunae Miller-Uibo with her 48.14 seconds record to win the race.
Miller-Uibo took silver with a time of 48.37sec — the sixth-fastest of all time — whilst Olympic bronze medalist Shericka Jackson of Jamaica was third (49.47).
Salwa sealed her spot in history behind East Germany’s world record holder Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova of former Czechoslovakia who got their spot in the race over 30 years ago.
“I’m the first one to win a global medal for Bahrain -? it is really rewarding and I’m so happy,” she said.
“I still can’t believe the time. The time is so crazy, crossing the line and seeing the time I went completely crazy.
“Yes I was training so hard but I never expected to run this fast.”
On defeating Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller-Uibo to win the title, Salwa said;
“I think she (Shaunae) is an amazing athlete,” she said. “I don’t think I would have done that alone of course.
“She’d been there to push me and is very competitive. I love her energy and already said thank you to her because without her I don’t think I would have gone so fast.
“So I’m happy this race happened.”
Reacting to the record-breaking performance, Media personality Ebuka tweeted ‘This is both wild and sad (for Naija)’
