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Rabat – On Wednesday, August 26th, Yemeni athlete Abdullah Al-Qwabani, ran barefoot in a Men’s 5000 meters round one heat at the 15th IAFF World Athletics Championships Beijing 2015, held at the Bird’s Nest Stadium.
Al-Qwabani, 16, who is the newly-crowned Yemeni Champion in the Men’s 5000 meters race, and Yemen’s only representative at the 2015 World Championships, ran 12 1/2 laps on the synthetic track barefoot.
Though being the only runner left on the track, the Yemeni runner recorded a personal best time of 16 minutes, 2.55 seconds.
“I started training just about one year ago,” Al-Qwabani told Xinhua, China’s state news agency.
“I love running barefoot. It feels so good to touch the ground,” he affirmed.
Despite not speaking English or Chinese, the Yemeni runner used his smartphone to translate from Arabic into English.
Running barefoot seems a tough and challenging experience, but there are no laws forbidding running without sports shoes.
