Joseph Deng (athletics) will take to the track for his second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when he competes in the men’s 800m. Joseph was born in a Kenyan refugee camp after his family fled the civil war in neighbouring Sudan. After arriving in Toowoomba aged six, he began training under the watchful eye of Ipswich Grammar School coach Di Sheppard and was quickly rewarded with a full athletic scholarship. Making his first Australian junior team aged 17, Deng moved to Melbourne to be coached by Justin Rinaldi of the Fast8 Track Club. After qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games via a stand-out trial result of 1:45.71 in a B-final – faster than the eventual A-final winner Luke Mathews – Deng finished 7th at the Games (1:47.20). Later that year, he ran a 1:44.21 at the Monaco Diamond League meet, breaking the Australian 800m record jointly held by Ralph Doubell (Mexico 1968) and Rinaldi’s former athlete Alex Rowe (2014). Since the easing of COVID restrictions, Deng has toured the European circuit, recording top-two finishes at the Kip Keino Classic (Nairobi 2020, 1:45.21) and Meeting National à thème de l’Est Lyonnais (Lyon 2022, 1:44.69). Outside of athletics, Deng enjoys playing basketball, soccer and PlayStation.