Kriss Akabusi

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Kriss Akabusi
MBE
Akabusi at Hyde Park, 2012
Personal information
Full nameKezie Uchechukwu Duru Akabusi
NationalityBritish
Born (1958-11-28) 28 November 1958 (age 65)
Paddington, London, England
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight81 kg (179 lb)
Sport
SportTrack and field
Event(s)Sprinting, hurdling
Medal record
Men's
athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1984 Los Angeles 4x400 m relay
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Barcelona 400 m hurdles
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Barcelona 4x400 m relay
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1991 Tokyo 4x400 m relay
Silver medal – second place 1987 Rome 4x400 m relay
Bronze medal – third place 1991 Tokyo 400 m hurdles
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1986 Stuttgart
4x400 m relay
Gold medal – first place 1990 Split 400 m hurdles
Gold medal – first place 1990 Split
4x400 m relay
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 1990 Auckland 400 m hurdles

Kezie Uchechukwu Duru Akabusi // ⓘ, MBE (born 28 November 1958),[1][2] known as Kriss Akabusi, is a British broadcaster & former sprint and hurdling track and field athlete.

His first international successes were with the British

British record, and he also won gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
.

He reached the peak of his career over the next two years, winning a hurdles bronze medal at the

motivational speaker.[4]

Early life

Born in Paddington to Nigerian parents who were studying in London, Akabusi would later be brought up in foster care with his brother Riba, after their parents returned to their country when he was four.[5][6] Due to the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, Akabusi was unable to stay in contact with his parents, although he would later be reunited with his mother in his teens. She was determined that her son should settle in Nigeria, but while Akabusi was keen to make up for lost time with the rest of his family, he remained in the United Kingdom, eventually visiting the African nation when he was twenty-one.[citation needed] He attended Edmonton County School.[7]

It was during this time that Akabusi, who is of Igbo heritage,[8] changed his first name from 'Kezie' to 'Kriss'.[9] He told an interviewer in 2002: "I decided to make a new start and part of that new start was to have a new name. I spelt my name with a 'K' because I didn't want to change my initials and I want to have some connections with my past. Kezie Akabusi was the connection to my past, but Kriss Akabusi is a connection with my future."[1]

Military career

Akabusi joined the

Warrant Officer Class 2. It was during his tenure in the military that his potential in sports was discovered.[citation needed
]

Athletics career

In 1983, Akabusi embarked upon an athletics career, initially specialising in the 400 metres, before switching to the 400 metres hurdles in 1987. As a member of the British 4 × 400 m relay team, Akabusi won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.[10]

In 1990, Akabusi broke David Hemery's longstanding British 400 m hurdles record of 48.12 seconds on his way to a gold medal at the European Championships, with a time of 47.93 seconds. He also won the 400 m hurdles gold medal at that year's Commonwealth Games.

At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, Akabusi won the bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles and a gold medal as a member of the 4 x 400 relay team alongside Roger Black, Derek Redmond and John Regis, with Akabusi as anchor leg. At the start of the final lap, he took the baton in second place behind the American team, but eventually overtook American runner Antonio Pettigrew (who had won the 400 m individual event) on the final straight and crossed the line in first place to win the gold medal for Britain in a time of 2:57.53, a new British record.

At the

Kevin Young
set the former world record. He also won a bronze in the 4 × 400 m relay.

Television work

Following his retirement from sports, Akabusi became a television presenter, working on several shows including

quiz shows such as A Question of Sport, They Think It's All Over and Through the Keyhole. In 1997 he appeared as a milkman on Last of the Summer Wine in the episode "There Goes the Groom".[11]

Other appearances include:

Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Backchat.[citation needed
]

In 2017, Akabusi became a commentator on

Ladbrokes
 online betting.

Akabusi makes appearances on GB News reviewing papers

Honours

In 1991 it was announced that he would be appointed a Member of the

Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to the country through athletics.[16] In 1992 he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Southampton.[17]

Political views

In 1998, Akabusi discussed voting for the Conservative Party.[18] In 2011, he supported the 'Yes' side in the Alternative Vote referendum.[19] In August 2014, he was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[20]

International competitions

References

  1. ^ a b "News -- Kriss Akabusi: The extraordinary story of a great performer". nigeriaworld.com.
  2. ^ "Kriss Akabusi". IMDb. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Kriss Akabusi – Keynote Speaker". London Speaker Bureau. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Hire Kriss Akabusi | Speaker | Booking Agent NMP Live". nmplive.co.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Athlete Kriss Akabusi: Help teenagers leaving care". BBC News. 9 March 2011.
  6. ^ "Kriss Akabusi talks of abuse". 19 January 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  7. ^ Edmonton County School pupils Retrieved 12 August 2018
  8. ^ "Meet Kriss Akabusi Footdown Member". footdown.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012.
  9. ^ "Kriss Akabusi: overcoming his own hurdles - British Heart Foundation". bhf.org.uk.
  10. ^ "Kriss Akabusi". www.hfma.org.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Last of the Summer Wine: There Goes the Groom".
  12. ^ "On Demand". Channel 4.
  13. ^ Jim Shelley (18 July 2012). "Jim Shelley on best and worst of Olympics ads - Jim Shelley - Mirror Online". mirror.
  14. ^ "Theatre, dance, opera and cabaret reviews - The Stage". The Stage.
  15. ^ "BBC One - EastEnders, Billy's Olympic Nightmare". BBC.
  16. ^ "No. 52563". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 1991. pp. 1–28.
  17. ^ "Kriss Akabusi on the Olympic medal that changed his life". International Olympic Committee. 5 March 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  18. ^ Charalambous, Anthi (1 November 1998). "How We Met: Kriss Akabusi and Roger Black". The Independent. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  19. ^ "AV referendum: MPs would work harder, says Dyke". BBC News. 2 April 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  20. ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories". The Guardian. London. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

External links

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