
Sierra Leone’s all female team which participated in the championship put up a decent performance given the troubles they faced in acquiring funding for their participation in the championships. The shortfall in funding was so severe that one of the standout athletes in Maggie Barrie of Ohio State University was not able to join the team for the trip to Durban.
Ngozi Musa was able to put up a decent performance in her heat with a time of 11.71 seconds which qualified her into the Semi Finals of the women’s 100 meters. However, Ngozi was not able to compete in her Semi-Final race after an Official at the meet misled her to believe that she had not made the semi-finals and therefore assuming she was not on the list she was a no show at her race, also failing to check the list of entries herself an admitted oversight on her part was part of the issue.
400 meters Hurdler Aisha Naibe-Wey on the other hand was able to make it all the way to the finals in her event and that is the first time in about two decades since a Sierra Leonean athlete made a major international meet final.
She ran in a heat with Wanda Nel of South Africa; the number one ranked African women 400 meters hurdler and placed second after her with a time of 58.6 seconds. She would eventually settle for a 7th place finish in the finals in which she had been highly hopeful of medaling.