Abdi Bile
Abdi Bile ( Abdi Bile Abdi, born December 28, 1962 in Las Anod ) is a former Somali middle-distance runner, who in 1987 was Somalia's first world champion in a sport at all.
Abdi was born as the first of 15 children of nomads Bile Abdi from the vicinity of Las Anod and grew up with his siblings by his uncle Mohammed Abdi, a police officer in the town of Las Anod on. As a youth he played football.
His run talent was discovered when he was 18 years old. In 1983 he went to the United States, where he began studying at George Mason University and was coached by John Cook.
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he came over 800 m the quarter-finals and semi-finals over 1500 m.
He achieved his greatest success at the World Athletics Championships 1987 in Rome, where he won gold in the 1500 meter run with a time of 3:36,80 min.
Because of injuries, he missed the qualifications for the 1988 Olympics, the World Cup 1991 and the Olympics in 1992.
At the World Championships in Stuttgart in 1993 he won the bronze medal over 1500 m in 3:35,96 min and separated more than 800 m in the run- off. 1995 in Gothenburg failed over 1500 m in the flow, and at the end of his career he was at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta min sixth in 3:38,03.
Abdi Bile is 1,85 m tall and weighed 75 kg during his active career. He has a degree in marketing management and returned in 2008 after 19 years that he had lived in the United States, back to Somalia to act in his civil war -torn homeland as coach of the Athletics Federation. He comes from the same clan as the American long-distance runner Abdihakem Abdirahman.
Personal best
- 800 m: 1:43,60 min, August 16, 1989, Zurich
- 1000 m: 2:14,50 min, September 13, 1989, Jerez de la Frontera
- 1500 m: 3:30,55 min, September 3, 1989, Rieti
- 1 miles: 3:50,67 min, July 22, 1994, Oslo
- 3000 m: 7:42,18 min, August 21, 1994, Cologne