South Sudanese athlete headed for better performances in future

By John Agok

South Sudanese athlete has assured the people that he is headed for future opportunities despite recent performances from Olympics games in Japan.

Abraham Geum told the journalists during the press conference that, he was optimistic for the next Paris 2025 Olympics games given the comparison of the two Olympics performances.

“I am very optimistic for the next Olympic in Paris 2024 given this performance. We are improving in all heat from the two Olympics in Japan and Brazil respectively”, he said.

“It is really an excitement to be back home after spending one year and eight month in Maebashi city in north of Japan and we really appreciated the Mayor of Maebashi City for hosting us there”, the athlete added.

The four South Sudanese athletes arrived Friday in Juba after spending nearly two years in Japan.

These include Abraham Geum, Abraham Majok, Akoon, Lucia Morris and Michael Machiek for Paralympic and their Coach.

2016 and 2020 Olympics had different perfomances levels but Mr. Geum assured South Sudanese of bright future in sports, if there is a good training to be offered to them.

Geum who did qualify for gold medal said there was huge improvement in his performances starting from Brazil Rio de Janeiro and Japan Tokyo2020Olympic.

“There is great improvement in my performances comparing it to two Olympics participations. If you look at my performances from four year ago, I was having 3: 55 but now “Second-place for South Sudan, 3:44.99,” he disclosed.

Mitsuhiro Toyama, the Japanese deputy Chief of Mission in South Sudan said, the numbers on the digital scoreboard display a new South Sudanese Men’s 1500m national record.

On April 4, Abraham Geum set a new personal best at the “Tokyo Athletics Association Middle Distance Challenge” held at Komazawa Olympic Park Athletic Field in Tokyo.

 He was unfortunately overtaken on the back straight and finished second, but still set the best official record in Japan.   

The warm support of Maebashi city and encounters with various people encouraged the South Sudanese athletes and helped them improve their athletic performance.  

YOKOTA Masato, a professional track and field coach and other members of the middle- and long-distance track club “TWOLAPS” that he leads, were among them.

Mr. Yokota is a former Japan national record holder of Men’s 800m, and he took part in the London Olympics.