112: Youcef Abdi Part 1

Brad’s back running every day and finds a pace mate in Jess Pascoe.

The Inside Running Podcast Frothers take out the inaugural Steigen #1, winning narrowly over Maurten and Steampacket. The boys chat with team captains Whitney Sharpe and Louis McAfee about how their respective nights went, going over incentive schemes and how they plan to distribute the prize money.

Albie Thomas Mile at Bankstown hosted the Women’s Australian Mile Championship taken out by Georgia Griffith over Chloe Tighe, Jenny Blundell and early leader Jessica Hull. American invitational athlete Sam Ellis won the Men’s racing, leaving Rorey Hunter and James Hansen to split the Australian title.

This week is the first part with decorated steeplechaser, middle distance runner and Olympian Youcef Abdi, talking with Brad about how running took him from Algeria to Australia. Recounting his days playing soccer in their village, Youcef talks about what his inspirations for getting into athletics leading him to representing Algeria for the 1500m in the 1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics held in Sydney. After the event, Youcef explored his options in his life and decided to make the move to Australia to pursue a career in athletics the transition, navigating accommodation, finding employment and visas to ultimately becoming an Australian citizen in 2000.

After his citizenship Youcef recalls the infamous Sydney 2000 Olympic Trials 1500m race where Youcef was caught between Craig Mottram and Nick Howarth, the resulting re-run of that race while still pursuing an Olympic qualifying time. Rounding out this part of the interview Youcef shares with Brad his training structure in the early 2000s era, which emphasised on race-pace practice which earned him a Bronze medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

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