Yiech Biel

Yiech Biel
Biel at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born (1995-01-01) January 1, 1995
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight 62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Sport Athletics
Event(s) 800 m
Club Tegla Loroupe Foundation[2]
Coached by Tegla Loroupe[2]
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) 1:54.67 (2016)[3]

Yiech Pur Biel (born 1 January 1995)[1] is a track and field athlete originally from Nasir, South Sudan, but now living and training in Kenya. He has been selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team in the 800 m event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.[4] He placed last in his heat.[1]

In 2005 he fled from his home town of Nasir in Sudan to escape a civil war. After living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp[5] for 10 years, he started running competitively in 2015. The Kakuma refugee camp is one of the largest refugee camps in the world with over 179,000 people. According to Biel there were no facilities, he even didn't have shoes and not a gym. Also the weather does not favour training because from morning until evening it is sunny and hot. In 2015 he was selected to join the Tegla Loroupe Foundation, that hold athletic trials in Kakuma. Nowadays he trains under Tegla Loroupe herself in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, along with four other middle-distance runners from South Sudan selected for the Olympic refugee team within a joint initiative by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).[6]

Competitions

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
Representing Refugee Athletes
2016 Summer Olympics Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8th (h) 800 m 1:54.67
2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 5th (s) 800 m 1:56.53

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Yiech Pur Biel". rio2016.com. 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 Yiech Biel. nbcolympics.com
  3. ↑ Yiech Biel at IAAF
  4. ↑ "Refugee Olympic Team" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  5. ↑ "U.N. expands refugee camp in Kenya as South Sudan conflict rages". 20 June 2015 – via Reuters.
  6. ↑ "Olympic refugee team: Yiech Pur Biel, the 'Lost Boy' who found a sense of belonging in athletics". Archived from the original on 10 June 2016.
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