Ath: Hopes of strife-torn Sudan lie with teenage runner

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2008
Ath: Hopes of strife-torn Sudan lie with teenage runner

By Luke Phillips

BEIJING, Aug 9 AFP - The hopes of strife-torn Sudan for an elusive Olympic medal lie
squarely on the teenaged shoulders of 800m runner Abubaker Kaki Khamis, in only his second
full season over the event.

Kaki, as he is known, has taken the world stage by storm and while not reaping the
fame of Sudan-born runner Lopez Lomong, who was picked as the US team's flag-bearer at
the Games opening ceremony, is a much surer bet for a podium finish.

Kaki, 19, arrives in Beijing as the All-African and Pan-Arab champion in the 800m.

He recorded a leading time this season of one minute 42.69 seconds in Oslo in June and
has been in imperious form in the two-lap event.

His time was also a new world junior record, knocking 0.95 sec seconds off Kenyan Japheth
Kimutai's previous best in 1997, and a sharp reminder that a great talent had arrived.

"Great pace, great race. I felt the power. My first world record. I'm extremely happy,"

said Kaki at the time.

In March, Kaki had become the youngest ever world indoor champion (at 18 years and
262 days) when winning a gripping 800m final in Valencia.

He led from start to finish, and completed the final 200m in just over 26 seconds.

"My coach told me to go to the front and run as fast as possible and these tactics
were good," he said.

"I think I can run well in Beijing."

Kaki acknowledged that the world indoors in Spain had offered him a chance to alter
the negative world view of Sudan.

The African country has been wracked by ongoing civil unrest that has seen 300,000
deaths in the Darfur region, according to UN estimates, as well as the displacement of
2.2 million others since 2003. The Sudanese government puts the number of fatalities at
10,000.

"Valencia was a great experience. It was the one thing I could do to change the bad
image of my country," said Kaki, whose own training had been disrupted earlier in the
season when unrest prevented him and his training group leaving Khartoum for a high-altitude
camp in Yemen.

Kaki's coach, Jama Aden, a former Somalian 800m runner who has taken up British citizenship,
said his charge was now the most popular sportsman in Sudan.

"They are expecting him to win (Olympic gold)," said Aden, who first noticed Kaki as
a 15-year-old in a school cross-country run in which he set off at a fast rate of knots
but faded to finish 20th.

"I don't think a silver medal at the Olympics is good enough for them after what I
have seen from the reception at the airport. It was like Brazil winning the World Cup."

AFP jds

KEYWORD: OLY08 ATH SUDAN

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