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Somalia's sports minister has publicly apologised after a seemingly untrained female sprinter represented the African country at the World University Games in China and took more than 20 seconds to finish a 100-metre sprint.
Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Barre Mohamud said his ministry did not know how 20-year-old Nasra Abukar Ali was selected to compete in the women's 100m at the student games in Chengdu.
The ministry separately released a statement directing the Somalia Olympic Committee to suspend national athletics federation chairwoman Khadija Aden Dahir.
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 the performance was embarrassing for Somalia.
In her qualifying race, Abukar was immediately left behind by the other runners and finished about 10 seconds after winner Gabriela Mourão of Brazil, who crossed the line in 11.58 seconds.
Despite being dead last, she did a little skip in the air as she crossed the finish line, although her time was so slow that she was not included on the results page on the World Athletics website.
Australia actually had a finalist in the women's 100m at the meet, with 26-year-old Samantha Geddes finishing just off the podium in fourth in the final.
LoadingAP