Paris 2024 Athletics: Refugee athlete Jamal Abdelmaji sets personal best in record-breaking men's 10,000m
Jamal Abdelmaji produced the best run of his life in the fastest men’s 10,000m race in Olympic history finishing in 18th place with a stunning new personal best in Paris 2024 on Friday (2 August).
The Sudanese-born Abelmaji made his second appearance at the Games representing the Refugee Olympic Team and more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.
Three years ago, Abelmaji competed in the 5,000m in Tokyo 2020 in 2021 where he finished 13th in his heat in a personal best time 13.42.98.
Abelmaji worked towards a second appearance where he targeted an appearance in the final of the 5,000m. Instead, he went double the distance in Paris for a historic 25-lap around the purple track at Stade France.
Abdelmaji turned in a gutsy performance as he held his position in the middle of the pack with Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha setting a blistering pace.
He fell off the pace as they approached the halfway point and hung at the back for a few more laps before he lost touch with the leading group.
Abdelmaji finished strong crossing the line in a lifetime best of 27:35.92, smashing his previous mark by more than 40 seconds.
The distance runner has come a long way since he fled his home in Darfur as a teenager, separating from his mother and siblings before he eventually settled in Israel, where he was granted refugee status.