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| Human Interest | |
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Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Sydney, NSW, AUS |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | Bankstown Sports Athletics Club: Sydney, NSW, AUS |
General Interest | |
| Hobbies | Playing football, watching movies, listening to music. (athletics.com.au, 06 Sep 2011) |
| Injuries | In March 2012 he won his Olympic qualifying trial in Melbourne despite suffering a minor tear to his hamstring during the race. (theage.com.au, 07 Mar 2012) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | His brother was already involved in the sport so Abdi began running so he could spend time with him. |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, French footballer Zinedine Zidane, US boxer Muhammad Ali. (Athlete, 16 Jul 2008) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Lindsay Watson |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He took up athletics at age 14. |
International Debut | |
| Year | 2002 |
| Competing for | Australia |
| Tournament | Commonwealth Games |
Further Personal Information | |
| Occupation | Athlete |
| Languages | Arabic, English, French |
General Interest | |
| Nicknames | You You (Athletics Australia, 2002) |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | "No pain, no gain." (Athlete, 16 Jul 2008) |
| Other information | FROM ALGERIA TO AUSTRALIA Born in Algeria, he moved to Australia after he was accidentally sent to a military training camp in Algeria instead of one for elite athletes. He was told that he could not change camps so faced with the prospect of six months with no contact with the outside world, he decided to escape. Having recently returned from the 1996 World Junior Championships in Sydney, he still had a visa for Australia. ''Basically I had a limited time to get out of the country and Australia was the only place I had a visa to go. I had just 24 hours before I got caught so the only way for me was to run away. I ended up jumping the fence and running away and getting out of the country.'' He received Australian citizenship in 2000. (theage.com.au, 04 Feb 2012; runnerstribe.com, 18 Apr 2010) EVENT CHANGE After missing out on selection for the 1500m at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he decided to switch to the 3000m steeplechase at the beginning of the 2004/05 season. (olympics.com.au, 20 Mar 2012) FOOTBALL He is a football fan and went to school in France with French international Thierry Henry. (theage.com.au, 04 Feb 2012) |
Further Personal Information | |
| Family | Wife Alicia, son Leevi |