The refugee team of five athletes taking part in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games has been named and will compete in the Indoor Athletics track events.
The delegation’s Chef de Mission is Kenya’s legendary marathon runner Tegla Loroupe, who will be joined by two more officials and a coach.The five athletes Paulo Amotun Lokoro (entered in 1500m), Wiyual Puok Deng (400m), Gai Yang Tap (800m), Ukuk Uthoo Bul (3000m), and Yiech Pur Biel (800m) were selected for Ashgabat 2017 after trials organised by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation in Nairobi.
All are refugees from South Sudan, and with their four accompanying officials, will be thrilled to form one of the 65 delegations participating in the biggest ever multi-sport event to be staged in Central Asia.
Of the five, Lokoro and Biel competed at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, while the other three will be competing at their first international event.As a United Nations Ambassador for Sport and Peace, Loroupe is leading the way in finding opportunities for refugees to participate in international sporting events.
A first ever refugee team participated at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and since then Kenyan refugee athletes have competed in Cyprus, the Bahamas, Uganda and Rwanda.Last month, a team joined the World Athletics Championships in London.