A 19-year-old from Ipswich ran his first ever marathon in London and recorded an official time of three hours and four minutes.
Osman Abdullan is a Suffolk New College ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) learner and he was raising money for the YMCA – an organisation who has supported him since arriving in the UK from Sudan, two years ago.
He has currently raised £1,163.00 and people can still donate here: YMCA England & Wales: Osman’s page
Whilst his time is astonishing for a first timer, he believes it would have been below three hours if he hadn’t got stuck at the back of the pack.
He said: “I only crossed the start line at 10.20am.”
Continuing his thoughts about the time he clocked, Osman said: “I’m feeling very pleased as I had to wait behind a lot of people and I had to navigate the crowd.”
In terms of the experience of running the London Marathon, he said: “It was an amazing experience and the crowd was cheering. I focussed on my running and enjoyed the moment. At 18 miles I ran out of energy – but I just said I had to do it because I had done so much training. When I saw Buckingham Palace I was happy about and I was proud to finish.”
So what’s next for Osman? He continued: “I want to do another marathon in the future and one day I would love to run for Team GB – it would be amazing to be a professional athlete and be the next Mo Farah.”
In terms of Suffolk New College, Osman added: “They are very supportive and they helped me get on the front page of the Ipswich Star newspaper. I am very thankful.”
And on his future motivation he added: “I want to continue to give back to my community and inspire others.”
Head of marketing at the college, Craig Shimmon said: “What an incredible performance by Osman. I know many of my colleagues were keeping an eye on the telly to see if they could spot him. He has represented the Suffolk New College and the YMCA brilliantly – he has done everyone proud.”