(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman's 20 year old girl Mazoon al Alawi will be the lone sprinter from the sultanate at the forthcoming IAAF World Indoor Championships, which will be held in Birmingham, UK, from March 1-4.
Her participation in the 60m event at the indoor worlds was confirmed by the Oman Athletics Association (OAA), which received a wild card from the world athletics body, IAAF.
Mazoon, one of the only three Omani women athletes, to have participated in Olympic Games, has been training at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex (SQSC) for the past one month under the watchful eyes of Ukrainian coach Guzel Khubbieva.
In her exclusive remarks to Muscat Daily one the eve of her departure to London, Mazoon said, 'I am excited to take part in the IAAF World Indoor Championships. It is my debut in any world championship and I am hopeful of achieving good timings.
'My personal best has been 7.71 seconds and I am hopeful of bettering it at the Birmingham worlds.'
The Omani girl will compete in her first-round heat on Friday. The semifinals and the final are also scheduled to take place on the same day.
Mazoon regretted that she was not able to travel to the UK in advance as it would have helped 'to acclimatise'.
'I am reaching London only couple of days ahead of the championship.
'The weather is too cold there. It would have been better if I could have had a camp there to help me acclimatise with the weather conditions,' she said.
Mazoon said she was looking to break her personal 60m best of 7.71s that she achieved at the Asian Beach Games in Vietnam, where she finished fourth.
Having participated at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Mazoon is aware of the spotlight at world-class events and said, 'I am confident that I will be able to come back with a new personal best.'
Mazoon was the third Omani women sprinter to take part in Olympics. Buthaina al Yaqoobi made history in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (100m) when she became the first Omani woman to compete in Olympics while at the London Games in 2012, Shnoona al Habsi competed in the 100m race.
In Rio, Mazoon progressed from the preliminary round with a time of 12.30s but ran 12.43s in the next round to bow out.
Her personal 100m best is 11.85s at the 2017 Arab Athletics Championship held in Rades, Tunisia.
At Birmingham, a total of 632 athletes from 144 nations have entered in the 17th edition of the IAAF's second largest event.
A total of US$2,464,000 is on offer from the IAAF as prize money at the championships. There is also a US$50,000 bonus on offer for any athlete setting a world record during the four-day championships.
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