Olympians Farida Abaroge, Perina Lokure Nakang, and Musa Suliman are among the six athletes named on the Athlete Refugee Team (ART) that will represent millions of refugees at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
Abaroge, Nakang, and Suliman all represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Games in Paris, while Nakang also competed at the last edition of the World Athletics Championships, in Budapest in 2023.
Nakang’s running talent was discovered when she formed part of the World Athletics U20 refugee team pilot in 2022. The 22-year-old, who is based in Kenya, was selected for the World Cross Country Championships and the World Championships the following year.
Her fellow 800m runner, Suliman, is based in Switzerland and, at 21, is the youngest member of the ART in Tokyo. Suliman fled Sudan with his family in 2015 and lived in Egypt for several years before being resettled in Switzerland in 2021 through a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programme.
This trio will be joined by marathon runners Omar Hassan and Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga and 5000m specialist Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed in Japan, where they will compete in the home country of their team sponsor, Asics.
Athlete Refugee Team in Tokyo
Women
800m: Perina Lokure Nakang
5000m: Farida Abaroge
Men
800m: Musa Suliman
5000m: Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed
Marathon: Omar Hassan, Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga
