World Athletics has named six athletes to the Athlete Refugee Team (ART) to represent millions of refugees at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
Olympians Farida Abaroge, Perina Lokure Nakang, and Musa Suliman are joined by Omar Hassan and Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga, along with 5000m specialist Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed, World Athletics said in a statement on Monday.
Abaroge, Nakang, and Suliman all represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Paris Games. Nakang also competed in the previous World Athletics Championships in Budapest in 2023.
Farida Abaroge, 31, has competed in the World Cross Country Championships, European Cross Country Championships, and the Paris Olympics (1500m) in 2024.
Perina Lokure Nakang, 22, competed in the World Cross Country Championships and World Championships and like Abaroge, received a second Olympic Refugee Foundation Refugee Athlete Scholarship in 2025.
‘Marginalised population’
Musa Suliman, 21, is the youngest member of the ART heading to Tokyo. The other selected athletes include marathon runners Omar Hassan and Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga, along with 5000m specialist Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed.
“This comes at a time when significant cuts in international aid to this marginalised population have drastically affected areas such as food distribution, education, child protection and health programmes,” World Athletics said in a statement.
World Athletics emphasised that the Refugee Athlete Scholarship programme, a collaborative effort with the Olympic Refugee Foundation and its member federations, offers refugee athletes a vital purpose and hope for themselves and their families through athletics.
The World Athletics Championships Tokyo are scheduled for 13-21 September 2025, with more than 2000 athletes from some 200 countries billed to take part.
