Brave woman sprinter leads Iraqi Olympics charge

Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq has dodged bullets to pursue her love of running, her determination to succeed pushing her to become Iraq's only female athlete at the Beijing Olympics.

Few athletes will have faced the obstacles 21-year-old Abdul-Razzaq has overcome to reach Beijing, from a sniper's bullets to a paucity of adequate training facilities and religious and cultural opposition to female athletes.

"I love running, I have the persistence to keep practising and I have ambition despite all the problems that I face," she said at Baghdad's crumbling Shaab stadium.