Brave woman sprinter leads Iraqi Olympics charge

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq has dodged bullets to pursue her love of running, her determination to succeed pushing her to become Iraq's only female athlete at the Beijing Olympics.

Few athletes will have faced the obstacles 21-year-old Abdul-Razzaq has overcome to reach Beijing, from a sniper's bullets to a paucity of adequate training facilities and religious and cultural opposition to female athletes.

"I love running, I have the persistence to keep practising and I have ambition despite all the problems that I face," she told Reuters at Baghdad's crumbling Shaab stadium.

Last October, Abdul-Razzaq was training with coach Yousif Abdul-Rahman at central Baghdad's Jadriya oval track before the Arab Games when a sniper opened fire nearby.

"She was dodging the bullets like in action movies," Abdul-Rahman recalled.

"She ducked to miss a bullet which hit a tree."

Abdul-Razzaq's memories of the incident are slightly less heroic. "After it was over, I fainted," she said.

"I was back practising half an hour later, but we used the other side of the playing field," she said.