Olympics Thread
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83332734/former-slave-guor-marial-set-to-run-for-south-sudan-in-olympic-marathon'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83332734/former-slave-guor-marial-set-to-run-for-south-sudan-in-olympic-marathon</a></p>
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<p>Great story, well, not great but you know what I mean! </p>
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<div style="margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;">Former slave Guor Marial set to run for South Sudan in Olympic marathon
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<div style="margin:0px;text-align:right;"><span style="margin:0px;font-size:9px;color:rgb(153,153,153);">DARRYL WEBB</span></div>
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<p>Guor Marial will represent South Sudan in the Rio Olympic men's marathon.</p>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">South Sudanese Olympic athlete Guor Marial may not be a hot medal tip for Monday's (NZ time) marathon, but the former slave's road to Rio is one of the most astonishing stories of the games.</p>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);"><strong>As a teenager, Marial was forced to run for his life during Sudan's long civil war in which he lost 28 members of his family, was kidnapped twice and ended up in servitude.</strong></p>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">When he fled Sudan he never wanted to run again because of the traumatic memories, but after arriving in the United States as a refugee his talent was quickly spotted by his teachers.</p>
<div style="margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><img src="http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/m/4/l/p/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dm3y6.png/1471556660108.jpg" title="" alt="1471556660108.jpg"><div style="margin:0px;text-align:right;"><span style="margin:0px;font-size:9px;color:rgb(153,153,153);">Stu Forster</span></div>
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<p>Guor Marial, competing as an independent athlete, and Australian Martin Dent in action during the London 2012 men's marathon.</p>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">This month, Marial made history when he became the flag-bearer for South Sudan's first ever Olympic team, leading his compatriots Margret Hassan and Santino Kenyi into Rio's Maracana stadium during the opening ceremony.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);"><strong>READ MORE<br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83326089/what-sprinting-great-usain-bolt-told-rival-andre-de-grasse'>* What Bolt told rival</a><br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83326029/unfit-judges-and-referees-knocked-out-of-olympic-boxing-after-competence-questioned'>* Unfit judges and referees yanked from Olympics</a><br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83331776/rio-olympics-2016-british-tv-presenter-charlie-webster-seriously-ill-with-malaria-in-rio'>* Fighting for her life</a><br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/nz-olympic-team/83296284/head-to-head-are-the-olympics-living-on-borrowed-time'>* Olympics on borrowed time?</a></strong><br>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Rio is Marial's second Olympics, but it is the first in which he can wear his national colours.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">In London four years ago, he had to compete as an independent under the Olympic flag because South Sudan - which had only gained independence the year before - was unable to send a team.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Marial told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the time how he dreamed one day of representing his homeland.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">"I will be wearing the Olympic uniform, but inside I will be holding the South Sudan flag in my heart," he said.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">In a recent <em>BBC</em> interview, he described his excitement at finally being able to run for his country.</p>
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<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">"To stand on the start line wearing a South Sudan vest would be amazing," he said. "A lot of people lost their lives for the freedom of the country we have now. That's what I run for and that's the reason I want to go and represent the flag."</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);"><strong>SLAVERY AND FREEDOM</strong></p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">South Sudan separated from Sudan in 2011 following a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of conflict between the government in Khartoum and rebels in the south.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">The 32-year-old marathon runner was born in a village in the south at the start of the war, which claimed eight of his siblings.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">When he was a boy his parents sent him to live with an uncle in Khartoum because it was safer. But it took three years to get there. At one point he was abducted and forced into servitude for a Sudanese soldier's family.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Marial eventually fled Sudan in 1999 following a night-time attack by Sudanese soldiers on his uncle's home. He was knocked unconscious when a soldier smashed his jaw with a rifle.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">He escaped first to Egypt before moving to the United States in 2001 when he was 16.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">In the lead-up to London, Olympic chiefs suggested Marial run for Sudan but he refused, saying it would be a betrayal of his country, his family and everyone who fought for independence.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">After the London games, Marial returned to his parents' home in Unity State where they were reunited after two decades apart.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">"It was overwhelmingly emotional," Marial told the BBC. "My mum almost walked past me because she didn't know who I was. Someone shouted and that's when she saw me and collapsed out of shock.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">"I knelt down, hugged her and lifted her up. She kept tapping me and saying, 'Is it you, is it you?'."</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">But peace in South Sudan has been short lived. The country plunged into civil war at the end of 2013.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar signed a peace deal last year, but fierce fighting has erupted again in recent weeks.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);"><strong>ROCKY ROAD TO RIO</strong></p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Although Marial has a personal best time just shy of two hours 13 minutes, he almost never made Rio.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">In the Ottawa marathon in May, a motorbike he was following on the 42.2 km course took a wrong turn, meaning he ran extra miles, missing the qualifying time for Rio.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">The chemistry graduate, also known as Guor Mading Maker, tried again to qualify at Australia's Gold Coast marathon in early July but collapsed before finishing.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Marial's Olympic dreams appeared over, but world athletics chiefs stepped in at the last minute to secure him a spot in Sunday's race, which sets off from Rio's carnival parade ground.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">He and his two team mates are not the only South Sudanese at Rio. Five others have been competing as part of the Olympics' first refugee team, which was set up to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">The five runners were picked from Kenya's huge Kakuma refugee camp, home to many South Sudanese.</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:rgb(51,51,51);">Ahead of the games, 800m runner Yiech Pur Biel pleaded with South Sudan's leaders to end the fighting and give the country's young a chance in life.</p> -
<p>Willis said he got himself stuck on the inside on the final lap but knew they were the main contenders ahead of him so it would open up for him. Canny.</p>
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<p>Amazingly NZ has won a medal in every athletics event in which we had half a chance - with Val the only one you would say was sure to get a medal. Quite a strike rate.</p>
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<p>Lydia couldn't buy a putt in her final round and Inbee couldn't miss - luckily for Lydia on the 18th, one dropped in from the sidedoor.</p> -
Slowest 1500 final since 1932 apparently.
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<p>Well done to Nick! He's a piston wristed gibbon, but he's our piston wristed gibbon!</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="booboo" data-cid="607640" data-time="1471730888"><p>Just watching the soccer.<br><br>
Commentator says Kraut keeper is "former youth International". <br><br>
Que?<br><br>
This IS a youth international...</p></blockquote>
Under 23 innit? -
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="RoninWC" data-cid="607672" data-time="1471737422">
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<p>Just fallen in love with the German high jumper Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch ... Damn!<br><br><br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.google.com.au/search?q=jungfleisch&site=webhp&tbm=isch&prmd=ivn&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuo6bgmNHOAhUDX5QKHapMC_4Q_AUIBygB&biw=360&bih=560&dpr=3#imgrc=fn2M9tCZkHOzYM%3A'>https://www.google.com.au/search?q=jungfleisch&site=webhp&tbm=isch&prmd=ivn&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuo6bgmNHOAhUDX5QKHapMC_4Q_AUIBygB&biw=360&bih=560&dpr=3#imgrc=fn2M9tCZkHOzYM%3A</a></p>
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<p>what a name, that's magic.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="booboo" data-cid="607640" data-time="1471730888">
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<p>Just watching the soccer.<br><br>
Commentator says Kraut keeper is "former youth International".<br><br>
Que?<br><br>
This IS a youth international...</p>
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<p>The Olympics Football is Under 23, with each team entitled to pick three overage players in their squad.</p> -
<p>at least we aren't the only country that likes to trot out the medal stats to make themselves look better!</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/eye-opening-facts-prove-wales-11762148'>http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/eye-opening-facts-prove-wales-11762148</a></p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
<p>The eye-opening facts that prove Wales is the second most successful nation on earth at the Rio Olympics</p>
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<p><img height="768" src="http://i2.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/article11772098.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/matt-new.jpg" title="" width="615" alt="matt-new.jpg"></p> -
<p>The Japanese PM arrived as Super Mario for the handing over of the Olympics. Probably my favourite part of the whole 2 weeks tbh.</p>
