Ahmed Naas

Ahmed Naas is a Paralympian athlete from Iraq competing in the F40 classification javelin throw. He won a silver medal in the javelin at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

Athletics career 2012 Summer Paralympics Naas took up athletics after being spotted by a coach whilst playing football. He took up the javelin, but dropped the sport in 2009 after a coach said he lacked the athleticism. He returned to the sport in 2010, taking up the javelin full-time. His results at local competitions saw him selected for the Iraq team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where he attended training camps in Baghdad and Turkey. Unfortunately for Naas he failed to win the event, after China's Wang Zhiming recorded a distance of 47.95m in his final throw to set a new world record and take gold.

Buoyed by the reaction at London and having won one of only a handful of medals for his country, Naas believed that he would return to his home a "...king of sport in Iraq" and a national symbol. A year later the same situation occurred at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London. Naas qualified for the javelin throw (F41), this time finishing fifth behind the F41 athletes, with another world record of 38.90 metres.