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