South Sudanese marathoner Guor Marial will not participate in the 2016 Olympics. Guor dreams to represent South Sudan in the 2016 Rio Olympics were dashed yesterday due to what he blamed on the motorcyclist that was guiding him in a qualification race.
According to Guor who has been undertaking thorough trainings in Kenya and US for the past recent months, one of the motorcycles that were guiding the runners detoured him to a wrong rout which made him run to a wrong direction and wasted much time running wrong distances. By the time it was realised he is running to wrong direction he had already wasted much out of the stipulated time for qualification. He was eventually disqualified.
Guor made international headlines in 2012 Olympics when he ran under the Olympic flag because South Sudan was not a member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) by then.
He was one of four athletes who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics under the Olympic flag rather than that of an individual country.
The athlete will now have to wait for another four years before he could participate in the next Olympic games in 2020.
The 2016 Olympics will be held in Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in August.
Below is what Guor posted on social media:
My fellows friends, supporters, and family. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your kind supports throughout my training. Today was the day I had all my best hope to to qualify for the Rio Olympic in this summer, unfortunately, I failed the task. Something unusual occurred around 30km. One of the motorcycles who was (sic) guiding runners detoured me to a wrong rout ( I was the only one remain from my group at the time and the pacemaker droff (sic) out way too earlier due to weather conditions). By the time the motorbike driver realized that it was a wrong direction, I had then already covered 1.6km off the course. I tried to run back to the course but it was too far and didn’t know the direction. The motorbike guy then took me back to the course, but instead taking me to where I detoured, he took me to 29km. I tried to push as much I could to make up the time lost but it was just impossible in that weather. I reach 42.37 at 2:17.26, and then run another 3km to the finishing line. I covered 45.37km in 2:28.48.
I put all my trust on that motorbike driver, but he failed me. It’s unfortunate situation. I let my country and all of you down. It’s the regret that will lives with me for ever.
via Talk of Juba
