Watch: Somalian athlete's 100m sprint goes viral for slow time, sports minister apologises

A video of a seemingly untrained female sprinter from Somalia taking more than 20 second to finish a 100-meter race is going viral. In the qualifying race which was part of the World University Games in China on Tuesday, 20-year-old Nasra Abukar Ali was immediately left behind by the other runners and finished about 10 seconds after the winner. Despite being dead last, she did a little skip in the air as she crossed the finish line. Somalia’s sports minister publicly apologised Wednesday and ordered that the chairwoman of the national track and field federation be suspended. Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Barre Mohamud said his ministry did not know how Nasra Abukar was selected to compete in the women’s 100 at the student games in Chengdu.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports should step down. It's disheartening to witness such an incompetent government. How could they select an untrained girl to represent Somalia in running? It's truly shocking and reflects poorly on our country internationally. pic.twitter.com/vMkBUA5JSL

— Elham Ishmael ✍︎ (@EIshmael_) August 1, 2023

The ministry separately released a statement directing the Somalia Olympic Committee to suspend national athletics federation chairwoman Khadija Aden Dahir amid allegations that Nasra Abukar was a relative of hers and was given the chance to compete at the games because of that. Somalia’s university union said it had not sent any runners to China as part of an official Somali team. A video of the agonisingly slow run by Nasra Abukar was shared across social media and Mohamud said that the performance was embarrassing for Somalia. With AP inputs