The sky blue-clad national women's basketball team from war-ravaged Somalia has just beaten Qatar, the host nation, at the 2011 Arab Games, in a hotly-contested match that ended 67-57 to the East African country.
"Words can't describe how I felt," says Canadian-born Somali team member Khatra Mahdi about last week's triumph. "We were all jumping up and down, there were tears in the girls' eyes -- history was made right there," she adds.
The victory marked a remarkable feat for the Somali players as it came against a backdrop fraught with difficulties and danger.
Notwithstanding Somalia's prolonged civil war and shattered sports infrastructure, the team says it had to prepare for the Games in the bullet-ridden police headquarters in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. There, the women would train for two to three hours a day under the watchful eye of security officers, tasked to safeguard them against religious militants targeting women playing the sport.
More here: Somali women defy danger to write basketball history - CNN.com