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CHENGDU, China — Sports officials from Somalia are apologizing after video of a woman's very slow race performance at the World University Games in China went viral this week.
Nasra Abukar Ali lined up for the women's 100-meter but she finished dead last, more than 10 seconds behind the winner, who clocked 11.58 seconds. Ali took 21 seconds to finish the race.
Video shows the untrained 20-year-old was not even in the frame as the rest of the field crossed the line.
An investigation with Somalia's National Olympic Committee revealed Ali was "neither a sports person nor a runner."
Somalia's sports minister apologized to the people of Somalia and accused the chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation of "abuse of power, nepotism and defaming the name of the nation in (the) international arena."
The chairwoman has been suspended.
Investigators also discovered there is no registered Somali University Sports Association.
The sports ministry plans to take legal action against both the chairman of the Athletics Federation of Somalia and whoever is responsible for falsifying the Somali University Sports Association.
Contributing: Reuters
