World Swimming Championships: 10-year-old Alzain Tareq competes

London, August 07:10-year-old Alzain Tareq raised many eyebrows on Friday when she took part in the 50m butterfly heats to become the youngest swimmer to compete at a World Championship.

Although Tareq didn’t come anywhere near the minimum qualifying times to compete at the world championships, she was allowed to compete because of a rule allowing each nation to have some limited representation. We have a 50m and a 25m pool in Bahrain.

Tareq, whose mother is Scottish, finished last in 41.13 seconds, the slowest of all 64 swimmers in Kazan.

She trains five days a week, twice a day, in the mornings and the evenings, fitting her sessions around her schoolwork and her favourite subject is maths.

“Good on her for having a go”.

“I have so many tournaments under my belt – not such worldwide global championships, but still, I am scared of no one and nothing!” she said.

Tareq is also competing in Saturday’s 100m freestyle heats and was pleased to have met her heroes in Russian Federation.

Despite failing to qualify, she said: “I’m happy, I feel so happy”.

“Every time she sees me she gives me the biggest smile”.

“She said, ‘Look, these are my idols”. And Cate didn’t really talk to me.

FINA does not now have any minimum age limits for competitors but sources said that was likely to be reviewed in the future. I want to beat them in the future, ‘ ” her father said.

Teenage swim stars aren’t uncommon but Tareq has taken things to a new extreme, much to the surprise of Germany’s former 200m freestyle champion Franziska van Almsick who questioned whether the youngster should be allowed to compete at the worlds. “When I am aged 15 or 16 I can do that I think”.