Just months ago, in March and April 2024, Bahrein runner Salwa Eid Naser was at the lowest point of her career. Listin Diario reports that the Paris Olympics silver medalist was suffering from depression, sleepless nights, and a history of injuries, doping tests, and suspensions. She recovered and ran for second place in the 400m in the Paris Olympics, losing to Dominican Marileidy Paulino.
What is most interesting, is that Naser was coached for the Olympic Games by Dominican Jose Ludwig Rubio, a star in his own right, but as a coach. To win the race, Naser did a time of 48.53. This is not Naser’s best time. In 2019, Salwa Eid Naser had won gold in the Doha World Athletics championship with a time of 48.14. At that time she was also coached by Rubio.
Naser was born in Nigeria but runs for Bahrein. Listin Diario reports on how she is protected by the Bahraini royalty and that Prince Nasser and Khaled Bin Hamad- Al Khalifa flew in their private jet to watch her compete in Paris.
Listin Diario reports that Naser’s story is deeply intertwined with the Dominican Republic through her Dominican coach. The Nigerian athlete has developed a strong affinity for the Dominican people, often training in locations like Casa de Campo, Punta Cana, Santiago and La Romana.
The newspaper explains that Naser’s connection to the Dominican Republic goes beyond training. She has formed a deep appreciation for Dominican cuisine, particularly enjoying local dishes like “salcocho,” “moro de guandules,” and rice and beans.
What is clear is that Rubio has been instrumental in Naser’s resurgence. He began working with her in 2017 when she was struggling with her performance and considering retirement. Through dedicated training and support, Rubio has helped Naser return to the top of the sport.
“I came to Bahrain to work exclusively with her,” Rubio told Listin Diario. “Her manager, Juan Pineda, also worked with Luguelín Santos, and that’s how I got involved.” Under Rubio’s guidance, Naser has won the Diamond League twice and a World Championship.
With the silver medal in Paris now secured, Naser will next compete in the Diamond League. There’s a possibility she could face off against Paulino once again. She has become Paulino’s leading contender.
Naser’s win is a personal satisfaction for Rubio who was banned from accompanying Dominican athletes to the San Salvador Central American and Caribbean Games. While he coaches athletes abroad, he has kept close ties in the DR, training runners through a running club he has created.
Rubio is credited as the first Dominican coach to produce an Olympic medalist. Rubio first came to the limelight when his young pupil Luguelin Santos won the youth championships and then silver in the 2012 London Olympics. Luguelin Santos would participate in the 4×400 relay that won the silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics. Luguelin got his start because he was a teenager growing up in Monte Plata where the national games were celebrated and an excellent track was built and maintained by the community that helped sponsor sports for the local young people.
Rubio’s Dominican athletes protested when he was not included in the Dominican team to the Central American and Caribbean Sports Games in El Salvador 2023. Rubio does not have the blessing of the Dominican Athletics Federation. Local sports authorities seem reticent to give him a second chance and have not forgiven his sports glitch related to former Olympic medalist Luguelin Santos. It is that Santos was banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for three years for age-manipulation violations at the IAAF World Junior Championships (Barcelona 2012); his three-year period of ineligibility, running from 11 March 2023 to 10 March 2026. Luguelin Santos did an outstanding job reporting on the Paris Olympic track events for Claro Sports Hispanic markets.
Luguelin Santos won the 400-meter gold medallist at the event (now known as the World Athletics U20 Championships) yet would admit to competing in the 2012 age-group championships with a passport showing a falsified date of birth – 12 November 1993 – when in fact he had been born on that date yet in 1992. Thus, he was ineligible to participate in the World Juniors 2012 which, based on the 2012 Competition Rules, required junior athletes to be aged 18 or 19 on 31 December of the competition year.
This situation affected the status of Rubio as a coach for Dominican athletes.
Regardless, Rubio’s win with Naser reconfirms his innate talents in producing Olympic champions. In the Dominican Republic, he has the JRL Track Club for training in athletics where he has coached Fiordaliza Cofil, who won gold on the 4 x 400 mixed relay at the 2022 Oregon World Championships. Other members of that relay were Lidio Andres Felix, Alexander Ogando and Marileidy Paulino. Cofil ran the anchor leg.
In the Dominican Republic, Rubio works at the Santiago and Bayaguana tracks. He hopes one day to open a training center in Punta Cana or the mountain area of Constanza to expand the sport in the country, as reported in Record.
Rubio was the country’s main track coach before leaving for Puerto Rico to work at the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, from 2011 to 2017.
The two main coaches in the Dominican Republic are Yaseen Perez for Marileidy Paulino and former two-time Olympian Felix Sanchez for Alexis Ogando.
Read more:
Listin Diario
Law in Sport
Record
DR1 News
Diario Libre
Hoy
14 August 2024