AMMAN — Jordanian sprinter Aliyah Boshnak was scouted for
the national athletics team at only 13. Eight years, and several broken records
later, Boshnak now finds herself one of Jordan’s 14 Tokyo-bound Olympians.
اضافة اعلان
“I started out as a gymnast and stumbled into athletics by
chance back in school,” Boshank told
Jordan
News in an interview.
“In 10th grade, I decided to do athletics full-time because I felt I could
give the sport my all,” the athlete continued, noting that her family were
extremely supportive; attending every one of her games.
“They were my source
of motivation to keep pressing forward.”
Among the
Yale University student’s most notable achievements was breaking the 100m and 400m
records at the 2017 Asia Youth Athletics Championship in Thailand, which in
turn qualified her for the World 400m race, where she shattered yet another
record.
Boshnak was the first Jordanian woman to appear at the World
Athletics Championships. “Records are constantly broken, but medals are
forever,” Boshnak explained.
“I want to continue breaking records and compete against the
greatest sprinters. My Tokyo qualification is an important milestone in my
career but I will be competing on the basis of the quota system. But I am
looking forward to competing through by making the qualifying standards,”
Boshnak elaborated.
The sprinter left her mark once more in 2017 when she bagged
two gold medals for the 200m and 400m events and the pan-Arab championships in
Tunisia, achieving a new record in the former.
Like most of her fellow athletes, Boshnak said COVID-19 put
a damper on her plans. “I struggled a lot trying to train during the pandemic.
There were no fields or spaces where we train and it was difficult to form a
strategy and carry it out, especially since the fate of championships was tied
to COVID-19,” she recounted.
Boshnak named Allyson Felix — US athlete who became the
youngest gold medalist sprinter at the 2005 World Championships in 2005 — as
her idol.
“Allyson Felix is my role model in every way. The way she
runs and her ideas on women’s sport and equality,” she noted.
To the young girls and women who look up to her, Boshnak
said: “Do not leave room for negativity, you deserve a place in every field.”
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