Auckland Student Aysha Hussan Aims High

At just 14, track athlete and netballer Aysha Hussan has already achieved so much, including as the New Zealand face on the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist 2020, alongside 34 other women involved in sport around the world. Suzanne McFadden reports for Stuff in a story included online at the Fiji Times.

The New Zealand-born teenager of Fijian Indian descent sits proudly alongside 400m hurdles Olympic champion American Dalilah Muhammad, and Indonesian climber Aries Susanti, the first woman in the world to climb a speed wall in under seven seconds.

Although she’s yet to rush onto the world athletics stage, Hussan, a Year 9 student at Botany Downs Secondary College in Auckland, has set herself lofty goals, McFadden writes. As well as wanting to be a doctor, it’s her dream to become the first Muslim woman to represent New Zealand at an Olympic Games.

“I want to run the 400m,” Hussan says. “I have to work hard and keep on striving, then I can get there one day.”

Original article by Suzanne McFadden, The Fiji Times, Stuff, September 2, 2020.