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Dubai resident flying the flag for Arab swimmers

Dubai resident flying the flag for Arab swimmers

Dubai resident Sarra Lajnef is hoping to inspire more Arab women to take up swimming after the Tunisian Olympian enjoyed a successful debut at the FINA Swimming World Cup over the weekend.

Lajnef, 24, moved to Dubai two months ago looking to advance her swimming career and has now found a new home in Hamilton Aquatics, one of the country’s top swimming clubs.

She made it to two finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Friday night, placing eighth in the 400m individual medley and fifth in the 200m breaststroke.

Born and raised in Tunis, Tunisia, Lajnef moved to France at age 15 before attending the University of Florida, Gainesville in the United States.

Lajnef says she came to Dubai hoping to take her career to the next level, and judging from her encouraging results over the weekend, the Tunisian seems to be on the right track.

“It’s pretty good for the first meet of the season,” Lajnef told Sport360°. “I’m pleased with it and we’ll take it further from here. My goal is just to get better and swim better at the next Olympics.

"I was the only female swimmer from Tunisia at the Olympics last year. Now I don’t just want to go and swim, I want to do something [more] at the 2016 Olympics.”

Tunisia has its star swimmer in the form of Oussama Mellouli, Africa’s first-ever Olympic champion and the first person to ever win Olympic and World titles in the pool and in open water.

But Lajnef wants to prove that her country has even more talent to offer. “Oussama is a role model for a lot of people but he’s not by himself,” said Lajnef, who also teaches kids at Hamilton. “We have other swimmers like myself and a couple of other guys who are also working hard.

“It is a big thing to be one of the very few Arab female swimmers. I hope more people will see us and get into swimming because it’s not only for guys. We have girls who can swim and we’re showing that now. And, hopefully, we’ll inspire Arab girls to get into swimming and I’m taking this as a mission.”

The Swimming World Cup did not just unveil Lajnef as an Arab hope. Also with her in the pool for the 200m breaststroke final was her fellow Hamilton swimmer, Hannah Taleb-Bendiab of Algeria.

The 16-year-old, who is also half-British, swam six personal bests over the weekend. She’s been living in Dubai for 15 years and is hoping to represent Algeria at Rio 2016.

The third Hamilton girl in the very same final was 13-year-old Japanese-British Chantal Meyer, who said the experience was a bit overwhelming but valuable nonetheless. “It’s ‘wow’ I guess,” said Meyer. “Compared to other meets this is really different because everyone’s really fast, you get so much competition. I’m friendly with the Japanese team so it’s been fun mixing with them.

"My goal is to make it to Rio 2016, but if I don’t then I can shoot for Tokyo 2020.”

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