Sudan salutes Kaki's success with huge celebrations

Khartoum, Sudan - More than two weeks have passed since teenager Abubaker Khamis Kaki became the youngest ever World Indoor champion and Sudan’s first ever winner of a World title when he took 800m gold in Valencia, but the population of Africa’s largest country has yet to cease its celebrations.

Although Sudan has little athletics tradition to speak about before this month, thousands of fans filled the Khartoum international airport upon the return of the Sudanese delegation to Khartoum ten days ago. Thousands more packed the streets of Khartoum to greet their hero as Kaki and fellow athletes made their way through the city.

Kaki then travelled north east to Ghadarif where he was awarded a piece of land by the head of the state. In a ceremony organized by Sudanese Athletics Association (SAA) last weekend, an Egypt-based Sudanese singer flew in directly to Khartoum exclusively to sing a song dedicated to the World Indoor champion. The rendition entitled ‘Kaki, Kaki’ got the crowd going with the 18-year-old enjoying the evening held up high on the shoulders of fans and well-wishers.

Due to his success, Kaki has been very much in demand and has had to refuse many more celebrations in order to focus on his preparations for the outdoor season where his main focus will be winning a medal for Sudan at the Beijing Olympics in August.