Thrilled Just to Be at a Great Show in Kazan -- On the Scene

(ATR) Alan Abrahamson of 3 Wire Sports reports on the number of countries represented at the FINA champs.

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KAZAN, RUSSIA - AUGUST 04: Rita Adriana Jimenez Trejo of Mexico competes in the Women's 20m High Diving Final on day eleven of the 16th FINA World Championships at the Kazanka River on August 4, 2015 in Kazan, Russia.  (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
KAZAN, RUSSIA - AUGUST 04: Rita Adriana Jimenez Trejo of Mexico competes in the Women's 20m High Diving Final on day eleven of the 16th FINA World Championships at the Kazanka River on August 4, 2015 in Kazan, Russia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

(ATR) The best female swimmers in the world cover 50 meters, swimming the backstroke, in about 27 seconds.

Fatema Abdulmohsen Ahmed Almahme, a 16-year-old from Bahrain, did it in 40.4 in the first-round heats here Wednesday morning. She was last in a field of 52. Afterward, she was thrilled.

"It’s the biggest achievement," she said, "because I have only been swimming for one year. I never thought about making it here."

If it’s indisputable that the track and field world championships mark the coming together of the entire world, with athletes from 214 nations, let it be said that Kazan 2015 boasts swimmers from 189. That’s up from 177 at the last edition of the swim world championships, in Barcelona in 2013.

Senegal? Mongolia? Tajikistan? Here.

Kosovo? Ethiopia? Laos? Here.

Papua New Guinea? Nicaragua? Namibia? Yep.

Read the full story at 3 Wire Sports.

Written by Alan Abrahamsonin Kazan

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