BAGHDAD - 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.www.fobshanghai.com5b;o2b v%@5}4A
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Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq stretches during a training session in al-Shaab National Stadium in Baghdad March 18, 2008. Abdul-Razzaq will be Iraq's only female athlete at the Beijing Olympics.FOB Business Forum&u(E%z8m7]8d8S8a"`6[%l

,J(t*m7O&D$l)\0UFOB Business ForumFew athletes will have faced the obstacles 21-year-old Abdul-Razzaq has overcome to reach Beijing, from a sniper's bullets to a paucity of adequate training facilities and religious and cultural opposition to female athletes.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business"I2b*d)h$a+p5~!P
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"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.
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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.
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%R6G;K%~6f+bwww.fobshanghai.com"She was dodging the bullets like in action movies," Abdul-Rahman recalled.
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$B#^'B)X/a#l)F*xFOB Business Forum"She ducked to miss a bullet which hit a tree.""c8d(N7d%_'T(h+T1y
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Abdul-Razzaq's memories of the incident are slightly less heroic. "After it was over, I fainted," she said.
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+_.l2e4]#U#v1y"v"Cbusiness forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business"I was back practising half an hour later, but we used the other side of the playing field," she said.
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Another time, gunmen opened fire as the pair drove home from training through Saidiya, one of southern Baghdad's most dangerous districts.[A Professional Business Forum]'v7u%B/R.~
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"My coach told me to lie down and he drove at very high speed," Abdul-Razzaq said. "I was crying but I survived, thank God. I didn't tell my parents about it."
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Such violence has become a part of everyday life for Iraqis, with tens of thousands killed in an insurgency and sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Muslims since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein five years ago.
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'?7?1D%p8\'p2D3\6AFOB Business ForumHaving survived the gunmen's bullets, Abdul-Razzaq went on to set a new Iraqi record for the 200 metres, running a time of 24.80 seconds at the Arab Games in Cairo last November to lower the previous mark by almost 0.3 of a second. She came fourth in the race overall.FOB Business Forum(l4P \)p7F.[*k Q4~

6M1V:h8s5r;F'Ubusiness forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil businessHer efforts have been rewarded with a ticket to Beijing, courtesy of one of five "wild card" entries given to Iraq by the International Olympic Committee, saving her the trouble of direct qualification.
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7m-_7x7B-v.h f$Z8j {business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil businessIraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq (L) exercises with her fiance during a training session al-Shaab National Stadium in Baghdad March 18, 2008. Abdul-Razzaq will be Iraq's only female athlete at the Beijing Olympics.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business1e E'~'r2n,C-X/G'f
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She will compete in the 100 metres and 200 metres events, a dream come true after only taking up running six years ago when she was in secondary school. She has since won more than a dozen medals at Arab and west Asian competitions.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business2i!s-I;L.a!u
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"I am very happy because I feel that the fruit of all my hard work is the Olympics," she said.[A Professional Business Forum]2e1D/L.\%F#r3f

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Last year, the Iraqi Olympic Committee said 104 athletes, coaches, administrators and referees had been killed since 2003. The number of missing Olympic officials stood at 22, including the then head of the Olympic Committee who was kidnapped with several others in July 2006. Their fate is still unknown.
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3m1N)e5K h9S&t,C%A4`Iraq's Olympics contingent has not yet been finalised but the field and track union are sending Abdul-Razzaq and another athlete after receiving two wild cards.
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Abdul-Razzaq trains twice a day, six days a week, each session lasting three or four hours. The facilities are basic, to say the least.
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*W:^2I#\*TFOB Business ForumDressed modestly in a black-and-white tracksuit, she begins each session with stretches and limbers up with a light jog under the watchful eye of coach Abdul-Rahman.2S7l/X4b&r%u&b*}-Q
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Water seeps over the edge of the running track at the pre-Saddam Hussein Shaab stadium as her fiance -- who asked not to be identified -- runs by her side. Bare flagpoles and cracked concrete stands ring the field as other would-be Olympians do sprint training.[A Professional Business Forum]&~5\(X)~*P$C5x*J"f

/k"W4I)M!B4C(H.T$FFOB Business Forum"It is the only stadium that is suitable for practising, it is better than nothing," said Abdul-Razzaq.FOB Business Forum"t*?:?.@3N"K
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Facilities at the Jadriya field are even worse, the surface ruined by U.S. Humvee military vehicles during the invasion.[A Professional Business Forum]3c&v0L'?)\
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Abdul-Razzaq will go to Beijing with nothing like the support other athletes receive from their legion of doctors, nutritionists, masseuses and other specialists provided by national sporting federations.
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e:s8c$j(H6`FOB Business Forum"I'm supposed to have a masseuse, I suffer from muscle spasms every day," she said.
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"I should have a doctor do a specific nutrition programme. I feel dizzy right now because my training is so hard and I do not follow a specific diet."FOB Business Forum6R"h*`+Y0E&F1A6n

"m%_3^2L:r"MThere are no gyms made available to her by Iraqi athletic authorities, so she often pays her own way into public gyms for the strength training she needs.
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"From all sides, I am restricted," she says.
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She been offered training programmes outside Iraq but has turned them down because her athletics union would not allow her coach to accompany her. However, they hope to be able to travel and train together before the Olympics begin in August.FOB Business Forum1a#@#J&](m c
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Her family encourages her to keep going -- her father was a former national cyclist and her brother is a bodybuilder -- but there are many in religiously conservative Iraq who think she should not compete.6I#j6v7x+U5o&K:_%k
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"There are people who encourage the sport but there are traditions and conventions which say it is difficult for a girl to travel and run, she should stay at home," Abdul-Razzaq said.FOB Business Forum!B:y5K(P&F)f
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"But I am not doing something wrong or haram (forbidden for Muslims)."
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&]$S$f#i$w!A;iCoach Abdul-Rahman is with her every step of the way, helping her overcome the dangers and difficulties of being an athlete in Iraq.
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3z/B8K:L7R(]2M#^)U)EFOB Business Forum"I cannot say she will win a medal in the Olympics, it is difficult, but at least we are developing ourselves," he said.FOB Business Forum%A(c'_;r&b-Z#e4u
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"We might get close to the others, or break the Iraqi record. This would be considered an achievement."
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