The UAE’s Betlhem Desalegn is set to make her Olympics debut with the 1,500m heats at 11:50am in London today.
The 20-year-old, who clocked a personal best of 4:08.87 in Casablanca last month to qualify for the Games, has undergone intensive training in Addis Ababa prior to the Olympics and her coach Bele Welash is optimistic she will advance to the next round.
“Betlhem is in excellent shape. She’s been training in altitude in Addis Ababa and is ready both technically and physically,” said Welash.
“She is 48kg, which is the perfect weight for a runner in this race, and while I can’t make any predictions, I believe she is ready and can qualify through her heat, which is our goal for this Olympics. Of course you never know what can happen if she advances. It’s going to be a new race.”
Desalegn’s opponents include Genzebe Dibaba, gold medal winner at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul earlier this year.
Russia’s Ekaterina Kostetskaya, who is hoping to emulate her mother, former European champion Olga’s personal best of 3:54.23, is another of Desalegn’s opponents.
Ethiopian Abeba Aregawi, who created waves at the Diamond League with a silver in Shanghai and gold in Rome, where she clocked a personal best of 3:56.54, will run in Heat 1 alongside runner-up at the World Championships in Daegu Hannah England of Great Britain, Natalia Rodriguez of Spain and Moroccan Btissam Lakhouad.
American reigning world champion Jennifer Simpson will be seen in action in Heat 2 in the company of the UK’s Lisa Dobriskey.
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