Special Reports

Inspirational Sudanese Runner Pushes Forward

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― CBS 3 wants to tell you about the dream of one young man. He's a runner, with Olympic aspirations but he also wants to inspire teenagers and young adults like him who are immigrants from far away countries who are trying to fit in.

25-year-old Macharia Yuot barely needs a coach. He hears 'one more go' in his soul.

"Anything can be done. You have to have the will," Macharia Yuot said.

Macharia was born in Sudan, an African nation splintered by a religious civil war that forced thousands of parents to send their boys away from their villages to survive.

ESPN's program E:60 told Macharia's story last fall.

"I spent a time when I'd have to be walking miles and miles without eating, without getting food," Yuot said.

Macharia was just nine years old, one of the lost boys of Sudan, walking across Africa barefoot.

"We won't do a second work out this week," track coach Vince Tuoey said.

Macharia trains at Widener University with Coach Tuoey who said Macharia's response to suffering is remarkable.

"Him being able to win six events at the NCAA championship, 13 time all American.  He qualified for the Olympic trials. That's the result of him finding hope within himself through all the suffering," Tuoey said.

Macharia told CBS 3 he really does not like to train in the cold. But he knows that to be a winner you need to have two things speed and endurance.

And to win in life you grasp opportunity, a message Macharia wants young immigrants to embrace.

"America is not a place where you can come and relax. You come to find what American dreams are," Yuot said.

Macharia is racing toward his dream one stride at a time.  Yuot will be a featured presenter where immigrant teenagers will tell their stories at the South Philadelphia Library on Saturday afternoon.


CBS3.com Editor's Picks:

WATCH: Heath Ledger's Career
WATCH: Space Tourists Gearing Up
READ: Dynamite Found In Bucks County
READ: Texas UFO Mystery Solved?
SEE: Celebrities Who Died Too Young

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)