DAKAR, March 23 (Reuters) – Cheered on by her family, driver Fatumata Bah raised her arms in triumph after winning an amateur motor drag race in Dakar that saw four men and four women competing for first place.
Pairs of drivers in small Peugeot hatchbacks had raced to make the best time on a makeshift 300 metre track at the old airport in the city, part of the capital’s first so-called Dakar Grand Prix.
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“I beat the boys,” the 42-year-old former banker said. “Being a woman or a man doesn’t mean anything, this is the 21st century – Girl Power!”
Inspired by the Paris-Dakar rally, organisers wanted to create an event where women and men could compete on an equal footing, after previously holding an all-female race.
Bah and the other female drivers – one of whom placed third – are keen to challenge gender stereotypes in sometimes socially conservative Senegal and elsewhere.
“I dedicate this trophy to my father and my husband who have always
