Bulbul Hussain

Bulbul Hussain

Personal information
Full name	Bulbul Hussain
Nickname(s)	Bully
Nationality	British
Born	(1972-01-03) 3 January 1972 Sylhet, Bangladesh
Residence	Whitechapel, London, Tower Hamlets, England
Sport
Country	England
Sport	Wheelchair rugby
Club	Kent Crusaders
Team	Great Britain
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2008, 2012
Updated on 2 October 2012.

Bulbul Hussain (born 3 January 1972) is a British wheelchair rugby player, who plays for Kent Crusaders and the Great Britain paralympic team. He plays mostly in a defensive role.^[1]

Early life

Hussain was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh.^[2] In 1994,^[3] a road traffic accident in Bangladesh left him with a spinal cord injury.^[4] He has no function in his hands, some restriction to his arm movement and no movement in his lower body. For wheelchair rugby Hussain is classified as a “one pointer”^[3] or a 1.0 player.^[2] and from then on he has dedicated himself to the sport.^[3]

Career

In 1995, when Hussain first saw the wheelchair rugby he was not convinced he would enjoy it, thinking there was too much wheelchair contact. A year later, he decided to give it a try,^[3] for fun and to regain some fitness, but after a few training sessions^[5] he was then attracted to the sport because of its speed and the competitive element,^[2] and from then on he decided to commit and dedicated himself to the sport.^[3][5]

In 1997, Hussain first started competing in wheelchair rugby during treatment at Stoke Mandeville. He won a gold medal when he played in his first major tournament at the National Championships in Stoke Mandeville.^[5]

From 2007 and 2008, Hussain studied at the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme.^[6]

In 2008, he was part of the Great Britain team that finished fourth in the Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing. Afterwards Hussain considered retiring from the game.

In September 2010, he was part of the Great Britain team that finished fifth at the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Canada. They won three games and lost four games.^[5][7] In 2011, Great Britain won silver at the European Championships.^[8]

In May 2012, Hussain was named by The British Paralympic Association in its 11-strong Paralympics GB wheelchair rugby team.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Hussain plays with the Kent Crusaders^[2][12] and plays mostly in a defensive role on court.^[3]

Personal life

Hussain lives in Whitechapel, London, England. His sporting inspiration is Muhammad Ali, whom he describes as the “ultimate competitor.”^[2]

In March 2013, Hussain, along with a three-year-old orphan, Tonbir, officially unveiled Tower Hamlets Council’s “Catch. Don’t Pass” campaign at the Town Hall in Canary Wharf.^[13]

Honours

See also

• British Bangladeshi
• List of British Bangladeshis
• Wheelchair rugby at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
• Wheelchair rugby at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

References

External links

• Bulbul Hussain on London 2012
• Beard, Matthew. Gardner, Jasmine. Going for gold as Paralympics come home to London. London Evening Standard. 26 August 2010
• "Fourth is the worst place to finish!". Channel 4. 21 August 2012