Going the distance, from refugee to Olympic heroine

In 2000, Agueda Amaral was the first East Timorese woman to compete at an Olympic Games.

In 1999, marathon runner Agueda Amaral was forced to flee from East Timor when she was caught up in the violence that followed her country's vote for independence from Indonesia.

When the United Nations restored control, Agueda returned to find that her home had been burned to the ground and her sports gear, including her trainers, destroyed.

But a few months later, she was tracked down by the International Olympic Committee, who wanted a small team from the world's youngest country to take part in the 2000 Sydney games.

Agueda Amaral tells Witness about her journey to the Olympics and how the ending to her marathon captured attention the world over.

This video has been removed for rights reasons.

Witness: The stories of our times told by the people who were there.