DARRYL WEBB, REUTERS

Former Concord, NH runner cleared for London

Guor Marial won't be wearing a South Sudanese uniform, but he will be running in the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee announced yesterday that it will allow Marial, a 2005 Concord High graduate, to compete in the Aug. 12 marathon as an Independent Olympic Athlete.

"I was shocked when I heard, and very grateful," Marial said from his home in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Marial, 28, had been petitioning the IOC since he ran an impressive qualifying time in October. But the newly formed country of South Sudan, where he was born, doesn't have a national organizing committee so isn't allowed an Olympic team. He can't compete for the United States because he's not a full citizen. And he politely declined an invitation to run for Sudan, the nation that shattered his childhood with civil war. But now Marial can represent, and inspire, all of his people, no matter where life has thrown them.

 

 

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