Rabah Yousif
Rabah Yousif at the 2010 Aviva Grand Prix.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
11 December 1986 Omdurman, Sudan |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 71 kg (11 st 3 lb; 157 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |
 Great Britain Sudan
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 400 metres | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Carol Williams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) |
400 metres: 44.54s (Beijing 2015) 4 x 400 metres: 3:04.00 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
400 metres: 44.54s (Beijing 2015)
Rabah Yousif (born 11 December 1986) is a Sudanese-born British athlete, who initially competed for the Sudan before obtaining British citizenship.
Yousif is the son of Mohamed Yousif Bakhit, who was Sudanese national champion in the 100 and 200 metres in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were also three other athletes within his close family, and he took to sports at a young age. At the age of 14, while training for the Championships with other Sudanese athletes in Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, he applied for asylum, and was granted temporary leave to stay. However his asylum application was declined due to lies he had initially told about his age having pretended he was an adult rather than a child.
In 2005, it was reported that Yusif was seeking British citizenship. In 2007, he was described as "one of Britain's brightest hopes for an Olympic medal", but a judge turned down his asylum plea, and he faced deportation. By that point, he was living with a British woman, whom he then married in 2008 - and has two children with - granting him a spouse’s visa to remain. In 2008, he was still living in the United Kingdom, with his wife in the English town of Middlesbrough while competing internationally in the colours of Sudan having "got back in touch with the Sudanese authorities who guaranteed his safety through his solicitors" and working part-time in factories and restaurants. After being finally granted British citizenship in 2013 Yousif switched his alliance to Britain and became a full-time professional athlete.
In June 2002, he competed at the East Africa Youth Championships in Zanzibar and the Eastern African Junior Championships in Addis Ababa, winning a total of two gold medals in the high jump and one in the long jump. This qualified him for the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. Guided by his British coach, Carol Williams, he switched from the high jump to the 400 metres, and won the British national junior championships in June 2004.
He finished third in the men's 400 metres event at the AAA Championships in 2005. He set a new record (45.72 seconds) at the 400 metres event of the Bedford International Games in 2007. He won the event again in 2008, with a time of 47.05 seconds.
...
Wikipedia