Kenyan-born middle distance runner Joseph Deng’s fairytale story becoming reality

BORN in a refugee camp in the north-western corner of Kenya, Joseph Deng was given a second chance in Australia and the super talented runner has taken it with both feet.

Joseph Deng will at the World Junior Athletics Championships in the 800m. Picture: Jono Searle.

THEY came across the borders of Sudan and Somalia into Kenya, a tidal wave of humanity escaping man’s inhumanity to man.

Running.

As many as 180,000 of them ended up at Kakuma, in the north-western corner of Kenya, barely alive; surviving in a ramshackle refugee camp of unmade roads, tents and mud huts with rusty iron rooves as red as the hot dirt all around.

Families washed when they could outdoors with small bowls of water poured from grimy petrol drums and fought each other for food.

You had to be fast to survive.

This was Joseph Deng’s world.

The refugees had fled devastation and drought as quickly as their weary legs could move and it was in these surrounds that one of Australia’s most promising middle-distance runners took his first steps.

Seventeen years later he’s still running toward what he hopes will be the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

This is the immediate target Joseph is shooting for as he strides out on a back oval in the shadow of Ipswich Grammar’s grand colonial buildings, a long way removed from the Kenyan refugee camp where he was born.

Joseph Deng will at the World Junior Athletics Championships in the 800m. Picture: Jono Searle.

Most afternoons he’s out here until the sun goes down, all liquorice legs, narrow hips and big lungs as he runs with such a light footprint that he seems to float across the grass.

Sometimes you can see him at full blast running up the steep hill outside the school’s front gate, time after time, as the cars on Darling Street drop down a gear or two to keep up.

Next week Joseph leaves for a month-long campaign in Europe, which will include races in Mannheim, Germany and the 2016 World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

He’s in hot form. Earlier in the year he was ranked the top 800m runner in the world under the age of 20 and last year at the world schools championship in Wuhan, China he won gold.

He’s already made every post a winner since arriving in Australia at age six.

He gives much of the credit to his uncle John Deng, who he lives with at Redbank, and his coach of five years, Di Sheppard, who has patiently nurtured his talent since he was a tiny pocket of potential weighing 33kg. He’s 59kg now and making the athletics world take notice.

Di has been coaching at the school for 14 years and predicts Joseph will be her first Olympian.

His first home in Australia was among the large Sudanese community in Toowoomba where he ran his first 800m and cross country events aged nine.

He moved to Ipswich in 2010 and one of his mates at Raceview State School, Frank Kuresa, now signed to the Brisbane Broncos, brought him along to the after-school athletics coaching at Grammar.

Joseph Deng with his long-time coach Di Sheppard. Picture: Jono Searle.

Not only did Joseph find a coach in Di with the patience and knowledge to bring out his best but, he also found a school willing to back him with a scholarship.

He hasn’t stopped rewarding their faith.

“I was born in the refugee camp,’’ he says. “My mother had come there from South Sudan, getting away from the war. She lives in Canberra now with my brothers and sisters.

“I have always loved running ever since I can remember and I feel so lucky to have been given the chance to represent Australia.’’

While Joseph was being born into a harsh world that seemed only to bring misery, Kenyan runner David Rudisha was starting to make his mark as an 800m runner on the other side of the country.

Rudisha won the Olympic gold medal in London four years ago with a world record time of 1:40.91. Joe’s best is 1:48:90 and Di reckons six seconds off that would get him gold at the Commonwealth Games in two years.

“Joe’s story is like a fairytale,’’ Di says. “Coming from a refugee camp in Kenya and then making the most of all the opportunities he’s been given in a new country.

“The school and one of the parents and the Aspirations 4 Kids in Sport program has helped fund his travel and he has a gofundme page to help with the expenses for these world championships.

Queensland sprinter Trae Williams will join Joseph at the World Champs. Picture: Supplied.

“David Rudisha’s manager, James Templeton, has also given us a lot of encouragement. There’s an opportunity for Joe to go to Kenya soon for training and there are American colleges offering him athletics scholarships.’’

Among Joseph’s 54 teammates for the world championships will be Queensland long jumpers Shemaiah James and Darcy Roper, who won a silver medal at the world youth championships in Colombia last year, sprinters Trae Williams and Brandon Herrigan and javelin thrower Conor Warren.

Joseph has more medals and trophies than he can count but says the race that gives him the most pride was his fourth behind Rio Olympian Luke Matthews at the Hunter Classic in Newcastle in January.

His time of 1:48.90 was his fastest ever and 2.55 seconds behind an Olympian. Not bad for 17 and on the rise.

“Joe’s success so far has a bit to do with genetics,’’ Di says, “but its more to do with attitude. He trains hard and is focused.

“I’m a big believer in giving kids every opportunity. Then it’s up to them to run with it.’’

Originally published as Kenyan-born middle distance runner Joseph Deng’s fairytale story becoming reality