The Man From Seychelles: Gaylord Silly

I missed most of Day 1 of the World Indoor Championships in Daegu because of the Philippines – North Korea AFC match. While browsing through the tweets of Athletics Weekly for updates, I saw a reference to someone named “Gaylord Silly” ranking higher than Jessica Ennis in Twitter trends. At first, I thought it was some British fad I was unaware of.

Then I read more tweets about the unlikely name.

Read the Telegraph’s article on Silly here

It turns out that Gaylord Silly competed in the 800m run heats in Istanbul, setting a national record of 1:54.90 for Seychelles. A cursory Google search unearthed more information. The French-born Silly works as a tree surgeon. The 26-year old is a veteran of several international events – three editions of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the 2009 World Half Marathon Championships.

And Silly also competes in the steeplechase! He’s also a hurdler – in a sense.

Photo from lanouvellerepublique.fr

Thanks to his unorthodox name, Silly has become a bit of cult phenomenon amongst athletics circles!

Additional Links:

Silly’s IAAF biography

The Gaylord Silly Facebook Fan Page

The Gaylord Silly Fan Club

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