Quintanas Movistar teammate, Alejandro Valverde, remained in third place at 1:05 behind.Early in the stage, Froomes Sky team launched two riders, Peter Kennaugh and David Lopez, in a small

NAIROBI, Kenya -- They were used to running barefoot on baking ground. They were raw, untrained. All eager.Each day, the five runners who grew up in the Kakuma refugee camp pounded the dusty tracks past thousands of makeshift tents to pass the time.Until there was a lifeline.Workers from the foundation of former marathon world-record holder Tegla Loroupe arrived to hold athletic trials, and the five excelled. For this group of runners, many with no family and all with little schooling, running could offer food, a solid house. Proper shoes.When I started the project, I said `What can I do with these people? coach Volker Wagner said. What he didnt have to worry about was their eagerness to run.The five runners are refugees, five of 65 million across the world who have been displaced from their homes. Now, theyre also track athletes, and theyre going to the Olympics.The runners, all from South Sudan, are part of the IOCs first 10-member refugee team. Its a team of athletes whose roads to Rio de Janeiro have surely been harder, but whose journeys might ultimately be more heartwarming, than any of the other 10,000-plus athletes who will compete at the globes biggest sports event.When we go to Rio we are going to give a message that a refugee can do anything any other human being can do, said Yiech Pur Biel, a 21-year-old 800-meter runner who now trains with the group at a base in the foothills just outside of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.The refugee team is made up of sportsmen and women who have talent and drive, and the same dreams of competing on the worlds largest stage as athletes from all over the globe. But they have no way of representing their countries, countries they were forced to flee. So theyve been given a flag, the Olympic flag, to march behind at the opening ceremony in Rio and to compete under at the games.They have stories of unfathomable hardship.Yiech was a 9-year-old boy caught up in the Sudanese civil war in 2005 when his mother -- with no food and no other hope -- left him with a neighbor and went in search of something to eat for her family. She didnt come back. Yiech was sent, alone, to the vast Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.James Nyang Chiengjiek wasnt much older, a child who herded cattle, when soldiers tried to kidnap him and force him to go to war. He ran away and also ended up at Kakuma, a camp teeming at one time with nearly 200,000 people, all homeless, many of them hopeless.Scrambling to hide when her village was attacked by a rival tribe, Rose Nathike Lokonyen came across the dead bodies of her grandparents. She was 7.Paulo Amotun Kokoros childhood memories are of running, but not for fun or for sport. He ran for his life as bullets whizzed past his head.Anjelina Nadai Lohalith was separated from her parents as a child more than a decade ago. The 21-year-old hasnt heard from them since, and can only hope that the news passed on to her that they are still alive is true.What I want to be is a champion, said Nadai Lohalith, whose event is the 1,500 meters. One day, one time. She hopes for a successful Olympics but, more than that, a reunion with the parents she hasnt seen in more than 10 years.The rest of the team is made up of two swimmers from war-torn Syria who, separately, made the treacherous voyage across the Aegean Sea on flimsy inflatable boats to reach Europe. They then trekked from country to country seeking shelter.There are two judokas from Congo, rescued from war as children only to be abused, starved and locked in cages by their handlers as they pursued a sport they loved. And a marathon runner who left Ethiopia in fear for his life, who now drives a taxi in Luxembourg to make ends meet, trains alone, and still wins races.Make no mistake their places at the Olympics have been earned: All 10 have met qualifying criteria.Its still a steep curve, especially for the South Sudanese. They have only been in formal training for a few years at the most, some of them just months. But after the hardships they endured early in life, this challenge isnt that scary.If I compare the training or the duration of training with other people I am going to compete with, (it) is not the same. But, I do not fear that, Nadai Lohalith said.Theyve come a long way, but Wagner said if any of them get through the qualifying heats at the Olympics, itll be huge. But thats not the point.It was never the point.When you give these people hope, coach Wagner said, that made this project successful.They look forward to being at the Olympic village in Rio and meeting other athletes. They look forward to having their own uniforms and running shoes. They look forward to being part of a team.Most of all, they look forward.---Follow the story of the refugee athletes at the Rio Games at www.summergames.ap.orgBasketball Shoes Online Store . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Basketball Shoes Sale . -- Matt Kuchar and Harris English ran away with the Franklin Templeton Shootout, shooting a 14-under 58 on Sunday in the final-round scramble to break the tournament course record. https://www.cheapbasketballshoesstore.com/ .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. Discount Basketball Shoes .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Basketball Shoes Sale . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends.BILBAO, Spain -- Jens Keukeleire of Belgium won the 12th stage of the Spanish Vuelta, while Nairo Quintana maintained his overall lead on Thursday.Keukeleire, riding for Orica BikeExchange, used a late burst to pull away and win his first stage at a grand tour by over two bike lengths.He completed the hilly 193-kilometer (120-mile) route that traversed four ascents between Los Corrales de Buelna and Bilbao in 4 1/2 hours.My director said, `If you are there at the end, you can give it a crack. And I was good enough to take it over, Keukeleire said. What makes it special is that I just became a father four weeks ago, and my girlfriend and son are here with me.Quintana protected his 54-second lead over Chris Froome, before the race enters three consecutive stages in the Pyrenees Mountains.The two frontrunners held off from attacking one another after back-to-back duels on suummit finishes, and crossed the line in the large lead group.ddddddddddddThere are no easy days. There havent been, and there wont be, Quintana said.There were no changes among the top-10 times. Quintanas Movistar teammate, Alejandro Valverde, remained in third place at 1:05 behind.Early in the stage, Froomes Sky team launched two riders, Peter Kennaugh and David Lopez, in a small breakaway group of six riders. But Astana led the peloton back and swallowed them up by the start of the second ascent over the Alto El Vivero before the flat finish.Fridays 13th stage is the longest of the three-week race. The 213-kilometer (133-mile) route starting in Bilbao goes over four category-three climbs and briefly dips into France before finishing in Urdax. ' ' '