This story appeared in the newspapers on 3rd August, 2012.
I used to hate running. I was running back home to save my life
South Sudan marathon runner Guor Marial will officially compete under
the Olympic flag at the London 2012 Games but deep down he will
represent his new nation and its long-suffering refugees. No coach, no sponsors, no country to represent, Former child slave Guor Marial bids for marathon gold. Olympic marathon athlete Guor Marial knows what it’s like to keep
running for mile after gruelling mile. The 28-year-old long-distance
runner spent most of his childhood being chased through savage battles
in his native South Sudan.
Running through the desert with hardly any water or shelter, his was a
training regime like no other. A tough survivor of a 20-year civil war
that left two million dead – including eight of his 10 brothers and
sisters – he ran from Sudanese soldiers who attacked and burnt his
village, an army officer who kept him as a slave and Arab nomads. Now Guor will line up in the London 2012 marathon on Sunday. He will
represent no national team because South Sudan, the world’s newest
country which won independence in July last year, has no Olympic
committee.
He has no coach, sponsors or training facilities and just one well-worn
pair of running shoes. He works all night to earn a living in Flagstaff,
Arizona, and trains by day. But remarkably Guor has secured a place
alongside the world’s greatest long-distance runners on merit.
It makes his story one of the most inspiring of London 2012, so much so
that the US, British and Olympic authorities have gone out of their way
to help him.
When he ran from his crisis-hit East African nation to become a refugee,
Guor completed the most important race of his life so far.
He went first to Egypt before arriving in the US state of New Hampshire with an uncle in 2001.
He said: “I used to hate running. I was running back home to save my life.” However, he won the state cross-country championship and was
given an athletics scholarship by Iowa State University. In June last
year, he entered his first marathon, in Minneapolis, and finished it in
two hours and 14 minutes – just inside the Olympic qualifying time. But he was a runner without a country. As a refugee he could not
represent the US. The Sudanese government invited him to join Sudan’s
team, but Marial refused. “If I ran for Sudan, I would be betraying my
people,” he said. “I would be dishonouring the two million people who
died for our freedom.” After a second quick marathon time, a lawyer took up his case, lobbying influential people to get Guor a place at the Olympics. Just 12
days ago, the International Olympic Committee agreed that he could run
as an independent athlete under the Olympic flag.
Last Thursday, the US and British authorities granted him a visa and
travel documents in record time – though they arrived too late for the
opening ceremony. He said: “South Sudan has finally got a spot in the world community.
Even though I will not carry their flag in this Olympic Games, the
country itself is there.The dream has come true.”
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