Yaseen Abdalla

Yaseen Abdalla
Yaseen Abdalla
Born	August 13, 2001 (age 25)
Occupation	Long-distance runner
Known for	NCAA national champion, Sudanese national records in marathon, indoor mile, 3000m, and 5000m

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Yaseen Abdalla, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 1 December 2025

Yaseen Abdalla (born August 13, 2001) is a Sudanese-American athlete specializing in long-distance running and an NCAA national champion. He gained recognition for delivering a 3:55.59 anchor leg over 1600 meters in the distance medley relay at the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. Abdalla holds multiple Sudanese national records, including those for the marathon, indoor mile, 3000 meters, and 5000 meters. Currently, he competes for the Arkansas Razorbacks, having previously been part of the Tennessee Volunteers and Texas Longhorns teams.

High school

Abdalla attended Lyndon B. Johnson High School located in Austin, Texas. He began running competitively during his sophomore year, starting with a 24:24 time in the 5k event. By his senior year, he had advanced to finishing third at the Texas State meet and sixth at the Nike South Regional Championships with a time of 15:45.64.

2019–2020

Following high school graduation, Abdalla joined the track and field and cross country squads at the University of Texas at Austin as a walk-on athlete. He did not participate in cross country during 2019, and both the indoor and outdoor track seasons in 2020 were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020–2021

During the 2020 cross country season, Abdalla competed for Texas, making his debut in the 8k with a time of 24:06.20. At the Big 12 Championships, he completed the race in 24:38.80, contributing to Texas securing third place as a team.

At the 2021 Big 12 Indoor Championships, Abdalla achieved top ten finishes by running 8:13.51 in the 3000m and 14:36.26 in the 5000m. Earlier that season, he set a personal record of 14:11.48 in the 5k event. In the outdoor Big 12 Championships of 2021, he placed tenth in the 10k with a time of 29:51.53.

2021–2022

In the cross country season of 2021, Abdalla improved his personal best in the 8k to 23:28.20 and finished twentieth at the Big 12 championships, aiding Texas to another third-place team finish. He secured fourth place at the NCAA regional meet with a time of 30:18.60 over 10k and earned All-American honors by finishing with a time of 29:28.10 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

At the Indoor National Championships in 2022, Abdalla anchored Texas’s distance medley relay team to its inaugural team title with a remarkable split of 3:55.59. He claimed his first Big-12 title by winning the 5k in a school-record time of 13:33.26 and also took bronze in the 3k (7:56.29) during the Big-12 Indoor Championships.

During the Outdoor Big-12 Championships in 2022, Abdalla finished second in the 5k with a time of 14:07.60 and represented Sudan in the same event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

2022–2023

Prior to the start of the 2022 season, Abdalla transferred to the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

He secured third place at the SEC Cross Country Championships with a time of 22:45.57, followed by a runner-up finish at the NCAA Regional Championship where he led Tennessee to first place as a team. At the NCAA Cross Country Championships, he placed thirty-third with a time of 29:29.70, earning his second All-American distinction.

At the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2023, Abdalla finished twelfth in the 3000m (8:06.72) and took silver in the SEC Championships’ 5k event (14:10.19). During this indoor season, he set both Sudanese national and school records by running a remarkable 7:42.23 in the 3k, ranking him among NCAA’s top ten performances.

At the SEC Outdoor Championships in 2023, he earned another silver medal in the 10k with a time of 30:00.18. At NCAA Outdoor Championships that year, Abdalla placed twelfth in the 5k event with a finish time of 14:14.16.

2023–2024

Abdalla secured fourth place at the SEC Cross Country Championships with a time of 22:47.50, playing a key role in Tennessee's first-place finish at the NCAA Regional, where he also earned third individually.

During the 2024 Indoor SEC Championships, he earned a silver medal in the 3000m event, clocking 7:52.32, and later finished 12th at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

In outdoor events, Abdalla achieved third place in the SEC Championships' 10,000m race with a time of 29:58.93 and participated in the NCAA Championships' 5,000m competition.

Following his entry into the transfer portal in July, Abdalla committed to competing for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.

That same month, Sudan’s Olympic Committee announced Abdalla as their representative for the marathon at the 2024 Olympic Games—a distance he had not previously recorded an official time in. At the Paris Olympics, he finished 33rd with a time of 2:11:41, establishing a new Sudanese National Record.

In November, Abdalla finished fifth at the SEC Cross Country Championships with a time of 22:20.2, helping Arkansas secure the men's team championship. At the NCAA Cross Country Championships, he placed fourth individually (28:41.5), leading Arkansas to a third-place team finish.

On December 7, Abdalla delivered an outstanding indoor short track 3000m performance with a time of 7:34.17—ranking just behind Ethan Strand’s collegiate record—and set new Arkansas school records with his indoor 5000m time of 13:22.29 at Boston.

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