With great confidence and a wide smile, Saudi runner Yasmine Amr Al-Dabbagh received questions from journalists in the mixed zone following her participation in the first round of the 100m race at the 18th edition of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, USA.
“It’s a wonderful experience,” she said to AFP, noting that it is a new experience for “Gulf girls in general and Saudi women in particular.”
The sports presence in Arab, international and Olympic events was limited to men only, before the fair sex appeared for the first time in major forums at the London Olympics in 2012.
At that time, Saudi Arabia and other countries whose participation witnessed the absence of women, such as Qatar and Brunei, were subject to pressures from the International Olympic Committee, which issued a law years before that required every country under its banner to participate in at least one female athlete (a quota for women) in the Olympic Games in line with the Olympic Charter.
It is Al-Dabbagh’s second participation in international competitions following the Tokyo Olympics last summer, when she also participated in the 100m race and was eliminated by the ninth in her series with a time of 13.34 seconds, before breaking her personal record in the Gulf Games last May, when she ranked fifth in the record A number of 12.90 seconds.
Despite finishing the third series of qualifiers in seventh and final place with a time of 13.21 seconds and thus stopping her adventure in her first participation in the global wedding, Yasmine expressed her great happiness to be in the same series with Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah, the champion of the Tokyo Olympics last summer, who topped the series with a time of 11.15 seconds Reached the semi-finals.
Al-Dabbagh also ran the series alongside the Israeli Diana Weissman, who finished fifth with a time of 11.29 seconds, but she preferred not to comment on that.
“This is only the beginning, and the next is better,” said 24-year-old Yasmine. “It is the first participation, not the last.”
Al-Dabbagh had dedicated the presence of Saudi women in the Olympic Games as the sixth female athlete to compete following runner Sarah Attar and judoka Wijdan Shahkhani, who participated in the London Olympics, and fencing player Lubna Al-Omair, runner Kariman Abu Al-Jadayel and judoka Judo Fahmy in Rio de Janeiro.
“Without fear”
“The most important thing is the friction, especially when you participate with world and Olympic champions such as Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herrah, this is what you need to develop,” the Saudi flag carrier said at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Yasmine was infected with the “Covid-19” virus a month before the Eugene Mondial, but she refused to blame this to justify its result.
She said, “I contracted Covid a month ago, and it certainly affected me in training and development, but this is not an excuse. The tournament is big and requires intense and hard training, great work and focus.”
And she added, “Throughout the year, I exercise six times a week and make a great effort. The goal was to achieve a good number today, but I did not succeed, and hopefully the next one will be better.”
“The goal is to win a medal in the future,” said Yasmine, who is training in the United States, where she resides and pursues her university studies.
Yasmine urged her female citizens to engage in sports and follow the example of men’s stars to achieve good results that raise the status of Saudi women and the flag of their country in international forums.
She explained: “God willing, the girls of Saudi Arabia will also (also) participate in all fields of sports and run following their dreams without fear.”
The demand for sports
This was the case for Kuwaiti runner Madawi Al-Shammari (24 years), who in turn came out empty-handed from the first round of the 100m race, also coming seventh in the first group qualifiers (11.91 s).
She told AFP: “I am happy to be a Gulf Arab girl in this sporting forum, and like all young women who are able to achieve their goals, and I advise everyone who has this sporting talent to accept her and complete her career with it.”
She added: “My ambitions are to participate in more world championships, break more Kuwaiti records, and win Arab and Asian medals.”
And she continued, “My participation in the world championship falls within this framework, and frankly, the race was not easy, but thank God I was able to finish it and record our participation and friction with the great runners, although I was negatively affected by the time difference between Kuwait and America.”
It is Al-Shammari’s third international participation following the Tokyo Olympics last summer and the Doha Diamond League this year.
