The UAE’s golden girl, Aliah Saeed Mohammad, has set a lofty target for a medal at next year’s World Athletics Championship in Beijing.
A day after winning her first Asian Games gold medal in the women’s 10,000 metres at the Asiad Main Stadium on Saturday, Aliah made it clear she would be taking the next step forward in her career as a professional athlete.
“These Asian Games were a crucial test for me on a personal level. I wanted to see where I stand on the Asian stage and this gold medal tells me how good I really am in this distance. I realise I need to make the next step now as a professional athlete and the next big event for me to test my ability will be the World Championships,” Aliah told Gulf News.
The 15th IAAF World Championships are scheduled to be held at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China from August 22-30 next year, making it the biggest event to be held at the iconic stadium after the 2008 Olympic Games. The gold medal performance was recognised by the UAE as she was presented with an undisclosed cash incentive late on Saturday.
The 23-year-old has been making steady progress under her coach Abdi Bile, a former two-time Somalian Olympian and champion world middle distance runner from the late 1980s. Her performance in the 10,000 metres on Saturday improved her world rankings position to 46, while she sits at No 136 in the rankings for the 5,000 metres.
On Saturday, she ran with a bloodied foot due to a blister that erupted during the course of the race. She was quite pragmatic about the minor injury as she went and got a medic to treat it before returning to join her colleagues in celebrating her gold medal.
‘New era’
“It’s really not important to believe in the rankings after a certain stage. We had a strong field in the women’s 10,000 metres and who would have expected Aliah Saeed to come home with the gold medal if one was to go as per the times, records and rankings of all the runners?,” she asked.
“I think I have reached a stage where I have to go out there on the field, use my mind and my heart and accordingly run my own race. The good thing is that I have made a start to a new era of my career.”
Born Medina Kadir on May 18, 1991 Aliah switched nationalities with the UAE from her native Ethiopia in 2010. Since then, she has been breaking through the elite field of long-distance runners. “I am Emirati now. I don’t remember too much about Ethiopia. That is history to me,” Aliah said.
Source: http://gulfnews.com/
