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| August 16, 2008 | Saturday | Sha'aban 13, 1429 |
Maldivian happy to train on sand
BEIJING, Aug 15: Aishath Reesha of the Maldives, who trains on a sand track in her tiny island nation, does not care that she was beaten by nearly a half lap on her Olympic debut in the women’s 800 metres heats on Friday.
“I ran a personal best? Really? I am so happy,” Reesha told reporters, wearing a huge smile.
Her time of 2:30.14, an improvement of almost three seconds, still left her the slowest in the heats by almost 10 seconds and she was nearly half a minute off the pace needed to reach the semi-finals.
“How can I compete with these professionals? I’m just a young girl,” said the 19-year-old.
Her only complaint about the Beijing Olympics is that the track is hurting her.
“This track is so hard on my feet. I run on sand, we only have a sand track,” Reesha said.—Reuters
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