Palestinian teenager flounders in wrong event

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Three days of travel is not the best way for an athlete to prepare for the world athletics championships but for 16-year-old Palestinian Gharid Ghrouf the odyssey was just the start of her woes.

The teenager arrived in Osaka at the end of her circuitous trip from Gaza to find that due to a clerical error by her federation she had been entered in the wrong event.

Instead of competing in the 100m and 200m she found herself lining up in a women's 800m first-round heat against the great Maria Mutola.

"It was very difficult I had been training for 100m and 200m but suddenly I had to do the 800m which is something very different for me," she said.

"I was very afraid to do the 800m but I tried to do my best. I recognised Maria Mutola and some of the other athletes," she said on the championships' Web site.

Ghrouf finished eighth in her heat in a time of 2:30.35, well behind Mutola's winning mark of 2:00.00. Unsurprisingly, it was her personal best.