Osman hoping to relive Barcelona success at World Champs

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  • Farida Osman feels stronger than ever.

    Former world junior champion Farida Osman will be looking to draw on her fond memories from being a finalist at the Barcelona Worlds two years ago as she targets another successful campaign in Kazan this week.

    The undisputed Arab swimmer to watch at these World Championships, Osman became the first ever finalist from Egypt when she placed seventh in the 50m butterfly in Barcelona in 2013.

    Her Cal Bears team-mate at UC Berkeley, four-time Olympic champion Missy Franklin, called her “the most competitive person I have ever met in my entire life” while the team’s acclaimed head coach Teri McKeever dubbed her “the Missy Franklin of Egypt”.

    Osman, 20, has been at Berkeley for two years now and together with University of South Carolina pair Ahmed Akram and Marwan El Kamash, are leading Egypt’s strongest ever world championship swim squad this week in Russia.

    Training with a team like the Cal Bears has had a big impact on Osman’s evolution and she says she has become technically more efficient and mentally stronger.

    She is swimming the 50m and 100m butterfly and freestyle events in Kazan and is hoping to make a big splash.

    “My target is to get my best times in all my races. I want to be able to surprise myself,” Osman told Sport360. “I want to go for it and whatever happens, happens. I don’t want to over-think anything. I don’t want to talk about ranking now because I don’t know. My time is the most important thing for me right now.”

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    Osman has been inspiring swimmers across the Arab world ever since she became a world junior champion in Lima four years ago.

    Her exploits in Barcelona saw her translate her success onto the senior stage and she’s now shooting for more.

    “I have good memories from Barcelona, making the final in the 50 fly, that was a really good memory – the first Egyptian to final, I felt like the entire country was behind me just supporting me. So it was a really nice feeling. I’m trying to take this memory into this competition to try and experience the same feeling,” says Osman.

    Akram, 19, has added to Egypt’s success in the pool recently by winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal in swimming, triumphing in the 800m freestyle at the Nanjing Youth Olympics 12 months ago, while El Kamash has caught the eye of many as he smashed several Egyptian national records at various meets in the United States, and swam faster than the likes of Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in an event in Charlotte.

    “There are three of us who are kind of putting Egypt on the map, globally,” said Osman of the efforts she, Akram and El Kamash have been putting in. “People are more aware of Egypt in swimming now.”

    Did you know – Akram Mahmoud currently ranks 8th in the world in the 800-meter freestyle! #Gamecocks pic.twitter.com/9VgiiQz0Ry

    — Gamecock Swimming (@GamecockSwim) July 21, 2015

    Akram says he’s confident heading into the action in Kazan and says his gold medal in Nanjing has earned him the respect of his fellow competitors.

    “I'm so proud to be part of this team,” said Akram. “This is the strongest Egyptian swimming national team in the history.

    “It was so important to win the Youth Olympics gold medal because I worked really so hard and was thinking about this medal a lot.

    “And this medal gave me the confidence I need now for the next level. I made a name for myself and everyone respects me as a professional swimmer because of it.”

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