“I was not so much interested in athletics at school, more in football. But at the age of 17 I was told to run a 400m as part of my school physical education lessons. I just ran in normal training shoes and a T-shirt, no spikes or specialist clothing, I think I had been playing basketball a short while before, and I ran 50 seconds."
http://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/tuka-bosnia-800m
The IAAF has a good profile of him above.