First for Somalia at African Rowing Championships

Since its inception in 1993, the African Rowing Championships has been growing with every edition and this year, the seventh edition, featured the largest participation ever. The championship was held in Tunis, Tunisia, earlier this month. The Championships also featured a number of firsts. This was the first time Somalia had ever competed and the first time Ivory Coast has ever won a medal.

Overall, Egypt finished on top of the medals table with a medal from every event – a total of seven golds and six silvers. Tunisia came in next, also taking a medal in every event. Their total was three golds, four silvers and six bronze. Then came Algeria, followed by Cameroon and Ivory Coast.

A record 14 countries participated with 68 crews competing in 13 events with racing conditions seeing temperatures of up to 35°C and a head wind on both race days.

Khadra Mohamed became the first rower to compete for Somalia at the Africa Championships. Khadra lives in Sweden where the president of the Somalian Rowing Federation, Said Mohamed, is also based. Mr. Mohamed said that rowing is not possible to do in Somalia due to the current situation in the country so the potential for Somalian rowing lies outside of their nation.

“I asked Khadra if she would be interested in training in rowing,” says Mr. Mohamed, “and she tried it and was good.”

Khadra first rowed in Tunisia at a training camp that preceded the African Championships. Then she went directly to the African Championships and raced the full 2km. Khadra finished her race in the lightweight women’s single in 14’11”.

“Technically it is a miracle,” says Mr. Mohamed. “She has a very good personality to do more training and Khadra will now join a Swedish rowing club to continue.

Khadra, who is 24 years old, did general fitness previously before taking up rowing. Now, says Mr. Mohamed, the target is to race at the 2011 African Olympic Qualification Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games. But Mohamed is fully aware that from here Khadra will need to do a lot of hard training. Mr. Mohamed will now work on recruiting more Somalian athletes to be involved.

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