Ahmed Naas is a Paralympian

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

from Iraq competing in the F40 classification javelin throw. He won a silver medal in the javelin at the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

in London.

Athletics career

2012 Summer Paralympics

Naas took up athletics after being spotted by a coach whilst playing football. He took up the javelin, but dropped the sport in 2009 after a coach said he lacked the athleticism. He returned to the sport in 2010, taking up the javelin full-time. His results at local competitions saw him selected for the Iraq team at the

in London, where he attended training camps in Baghdad and Turkey. At the Games he entered the F40 category javelin event. There in his fifth throw he recorded a distance of 43.27m, a new world record that put him into the lead. On seeing the distance, Naas cartwheeled across the track before falling to his knees, to the delight of the crowd. Unfortunately for Naas he failed to win the event, after China's Wang Zhiming recorded a distance of 47.95m in his final throw to set a new world record and take gold. Despite being beaten into silver medal place the crowd responded with rapturous applause when he took to the podium to receive his medal. Buoyed by the reaction at London and having won one of only a handful of medals for his country, Naas believed that he would return to his home a "...king of sport in Iraq" and a national symbol. The reality was very different. When he arrived back in Iraq, there was no one to greet him and he took a taxi alone from Baghdad airport to his home in Batha. He spent his prize money, given to him through various government sources, buying a plot of land in Batha. He was forced to return to work at his family's grocery stall, and now continues to train using rudimentary equipment, without a coach or training grounds.

2016 Summer Paralympics

At the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

in Rio, the

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and fun ...

, despite just four years earlier choosing to create two different categories for athletes of short stature to create a fairer playing field, dropped Nass' F40 javelin event from the Games' schedule. Naas still qualified for the Games but he was again placed into the same grouping as the F41 athletes, and there was no points system used to give the F40 athletes greater weighting to their distances. This saw Naas fail to make the final eight, even though his second round throw of 35.29 metres was a new world record for the T40 class. A year later the same situation occurred at the

2017 World Para Athletics Championships The 2017 World Para Athletics Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. It was held at London Stadium in London from 14 to 23 July 2017. It wa ...

in London. Naas qualified for the javelin throw (F41), this time finishing fifth behind the F41 athletes, with another world record of 38.90 metres.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naas, Ahmed Paralympic athletes for Iraq Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Iraq Living people Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Iraqi male javelin throwers People from Nasiriyah Year of birth missing (living people) Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field)