Born Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu in Anambra State, Nigeria, to Nigerian parents, Salwa Eid Naser began running at age eleven while at school and began to focus on the longer 400 m distance. She was the 2013 Schools Champion in Port Harcourt. In 2014, she switched allegiance to Bahrain, converted to Islam, and changed her name. She was initially coached in Bahrain by Nigerian ex-patJohn George Obeya. When asked about her transition to the new country, she expressed she was happy with the move and did not wish to dwell on her relationship with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, saying: "I have nothing to say to the AFN". Based in Riffa in Bahrain's Central Governorate, she had her first success at the 2014 Arab Junior Athletics Championships, where she was the gold medallist in both the 200 metres and 400 m. Following this achievement, she began to take the sport more seriously and set a new best of 54.50 seconds at the Asian Trials for the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. She steadily improved her best further at the Youth Olympics, recording 53.95 seconds in the first round before taking the silver medal behind Australia's Jessica Thornton with a much improved time of 52.74 seconds. Naser began working with former Bulgarian athlete Yanko Bratanov, who also coached fellow Nigerian-Bahraini athletes Kemi Adekoya and Samuel Francis . At the start of 2015 she set national junior records of 11.70 seconds for the 100 metres and 23.03 seconds for the 200 m while in Bulgaria. She confirmed herself as the continent's best runner in her age group with a gold medal at the 2015 Asian Youth Athletics Championships. She then proved herself among the best globally at the 2015 World Youth Championships in Athletics. A patient run saw her overhaul the more favoured American Lynna Irby in the final stages of the race and she achieved a lifetime best of 51.50 seconds to take the gold medal. Running in a hijab, the final came on the day afterRamadan, which allowed her to eat normally before the race after having fasted during the qualifying rounds. The gold medal made her the second Bahraini woman to win a global-level title, after senior world championMaryam Yusuf Jamal. Her tactical running was praised by decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton, who invited her on an all expenses paid trip to train with him for three days. Naser took her first senior title at the 2015 Military World Games in October. Competing against 2012 Olympians Bianca Răzor and Nataliya Pyhyda, she improved further to win the 400 m title with a best of 51.39 seconds, becoming the youngest ever winner of that title. She won the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships with a personal best time of 50.04, being beaten only by Phyllis Francis, after winning the heats and the semi-finals, each time improving her personal best. Two years later, she became the World Champion in Doha, the youngest ever winner of that title in the 400 metres event. She improved her personal best, set one year earlier, by 0.94 and her result, 48.14, has been the fastest since 1985 and the second fastest at the World Championships. In June 2020, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain has been provisionally suspended for three whereabouts failures in 2019. If convicted, Naser faces a ban of up to two years.
