It is not every day that an Olympic runner turns up on your doorstep and signs for Sunderland Harriers.

But that is what happened to the Wearsiders in 2012 when an 18-year-old Eritrean steeplechaser called Weynay Ghebresilasie was spotted training at the Silksworth track.

It was clear immediately that this young man was something special, as he was going round the track at quite a speed, so the Harriers leaped into action got him to sign for the club.

The Eritrean flagbearer at the 2012 London Olympics had failed to return to Eritrea after the Games in order to seek asylum in the UK. He had been sent to set up home in the Millfield area of the city before being given asylum.

Weyney spent seven months in Sunderland before deciding to head south to Birmingham, where there is a large Eritrean community.

Ghebresilasie left his mark on Wearside, but following a two week stay in hospital after collapsing while out training, he was found to be suffering from a serious blood disorder that severely dented his performances.

However, he did achieve significant success in the royal blue vest by winning the Northern junior under-20 cross country championship at Knowsley Safari Park on a snow-covered course in January 2013. The first signs of Weyney's debilitating condition began to emerge at that year's National cross-country championships, however, when as clear favourite to take the title on 'home' soil in Herrington Park, he could finish only third.

Weyney refused to rest when advised to do so after his hospital stay and the rest of his performances for Sunderland produced mixed results. Upon his arrival expectations were high that many of the club records would fall. But due to his health problems that failed to happen.

Weyney could only clock 9.02.73 in winning the 3000m steeplechase at the British Milers’ Club Grand Prix at Stretford in the summer of 2013, compared to his best of 8.28.97 recorded in Belgium while representing Eritrea in 2012. His 3000m flat performance of 8.28.2, against a personal best of 7.54.45, was way short of Brian Rushworth’s club record of 8.02.6, as was his 5000m season's best of 14.49.91 (13.50.6).

Ghebresilasie did show some signs of improvement when finishing second in the Cardiff 10k (29.31) in September of that year, good enough for third place on Sunderland Harriers’ ranking list behind Rushworth (29.04) and Graham Smith (29.18, but two weeks’ later he could finish no higher than seventh in the Swansea Bay 10k in a time nearly a minute slower (30:24) than his effort in the Welsh capital.

Last May, Weyney returned to Wearside to compete in the Sunderland half-marathon, where he finished runner-up to Elswick's Tadele Mulugeta, and in his latest performance for Birchfield, in December 2015, he finished fourth in the first division of the Birmingham Cross Country League at Cheltenham, which hopefully shows signs of him being fully recovered from his blood disorder. Still only 21, he has plenty of time to build on his earlier promise. Everyone at Sunderland Harriers wishes Weyney well for the future.