Eritrea’s Estifanos wins the Beppu-Oita Marathon with another personal best

Surging away from Japanese rivals Hiroki Kadota and Hiroyuki Yamamoto after 32km, Eritrea’s Tewelde Estifanos won the 64th Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, in a personal best 2:10:18 on Sunday (1).

After slow start, with the leaders covering the first kilometre in 3:11 and the second kilometre in 3:10, the pace picked up and 5km was reached in 15:27.

The pace then steadily increased: 5km to 10km took 15:08, and the 10-15km split was 14:53.

By 20km, passed in 1:00:43, the lead pack contained 10 runners. At 30km, with a split of 1:31:54), shortly after the pace makers left the course, there were still six runners in contention at the front: Estifanos, Uganda’s 2014 champion Abraham Kiplimo and the  Japanese quartet of Kadota, Yamamoto, Yusei Nakao and Satoshi Yoshii.

However, Estifanos soon started to increase the pace and Nakao and Yoshii were left behind.

The defending champion Kiplimo was the next to let go, leaving Estifanos, Kadota and Yamamoto to fight it out for the top spot on the podium.

Estiganos surged again after 32km; first Yamamoto and then, finally, Kadota had to let him go.

At 35km, the Eritrean was 10 seconds ahead of Kadota who, in turn, was another 10 seconds ahead of Yamamoto.

After 35km, Estifanos steadily slowed, taking 15:52 between 35km and 40km, but he still increased his advantage over his flagging pursuers and won by 28 seconds.

Estifanos became the first Eritrean to win the Beppu-Oita Marathon in its 64 years history and it continued his upward curve over the classic distance. It was the fourth straight personal best in as many marathons and his finishing position has also improved in those four races.

He made his marathon debut in the 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon, where he was 11th with 2:16:13. Next was the 2013 Gold Coast Marathon where Estifanos improved his time to 2:13:10, when he finished third, and in the 2014 Melbourne Marathon Estifanos improved to second with 2:11:47.

Kadota finished second with 2:10:46, nearly two minutes better than his previous best of 2:12:25, which was recorded in the 2012 Beppu-Oita Marathon.

Yamamoto, a marathon debutant with a half marathon best of 1:02:43, was third with 2:11:48 while Kiplimo fell off the pace after 30km and finished fourth with 2:12:23.

Kiplimo was followed home by Satoshi Yoshii, Naoki Okamoto in 2:12:48 and 2:12:55 respectively.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Marathon Champ Meb is Grand Marshal of Balloon Parade

Boston Marathon champion and San Diego resident Meb Keflezighi will serve as grand marshal of Friday’s Port of San Diego Big Bay Balloon Parade and as honorary chairman of Saturday’s Holiday Bowl, organizers of the events announced Wednesday.

The 39-year-old runner won in Boston in April, on the first anniversary of the bombing that killed three people and injured nearly 300 at the prestigious race. He was the first American in 31 years to win the race.

Keflezighi and his family immigrated to the United States as refugees from Eritrea in 1987, when he was 12 years old. He won both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races at the CIF California State Championship while at San Diego High School.

According to a statement from the Holiday Bowl, “the honor is awarded each year to an individual who has contributed to San Diego sports and society in a meaningful way.”

Keflezighi is the only athlete in history to win the New York City Marathon, the Boston Marathon and an Olympic medal.

A 1998 graduate of UCLA, his list of accomplishments also includes four NCAA championships, 22 national championships and membership on three U.S. Olympic teams. He won the silver medal in the marathon in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Last month, the Mission Hills resident earned the Jesse Owens Award as the USA Track & Field Athlete of the Year for 2014.

The parade begins at 3 p.m. Friday along the downtown waterfront. The football game, pitting the Nebraska Cornhuskers against the USC Trojan, will kick off at 5 p.m. Saturday at Qualcomm Stadium.

— City News Service

Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese to run at IAAF World Championship in China

December 18, 2014 (Beijing) – China will host the 41st IAAF World Cross Country Championships for the first time in its history in the coming year. The world’s leading cross-country competition will take place in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province in Southwest China.

According to the Chinese organization committee, the championship will start on March 28, 2015, with four categories, namely 6 kilometers for young women, 8 kilometers for adult women, 8 kilometers for young men and 12 kilometers for adult men.

Although, the IAAF announced that it would be premature to speculate on the numbers of the runners and member federations to take part in Guiyang, Chinese media reports state that the event could attract more than 1,000 participants, coaches and media from over 50 countries and regions.

Among the elite runners, striving to defend previous titles and return to former glory, is Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese, Kenya’s Japhet Korir and Emily Chebet.

The IAAF said that Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and the Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat, both in 2007, were the last individual senior winners from anywhere other than the two East African countries while Tanzania’s Andrew Sambu and Finland’s Annemari Sandell, who triumphed in 1991 and 1995 respectively, were the last junior winners to fracture the duopoly.

The first six individuals and teams in the senior races will be given a price money while a price tag of US$30,000 awaits the first man and woman of the race. US$20,000 will be spread among the winning teams.

 

 

Meraf Bahta: ”It meant so much”

Swedish Championship gold medalist Meraf Bahta fled his native Eritrea when she suddenly called to military service. SVT’s program Skavlan says long-distance runner on the first impressions of Sweden and gratitude towards his new family.
Without them I would not have lived here now, says Bahta.

She is Sweden’s fastest woman in the 5000 meters and the newly appointed European Championship gold medalist over the distance.

But long before Bahta became a Swedish citizen in 2013, she began in her löparkarriär in Eritrea, where she grew up. In Friday night’s episode of SVT programs Skavlan tells löparstjärnan when her talent was first discovered.

I started running in school. But really, I was not interested in running. My teacher forced me to run many times. Then he told my parents that I have talent but I do not like to run. One time I competed in the school against a very good girl. She was the best in school. She said: ”You can not run away from me.” Then I was angry. Why did she say so? So I ran past her, saying Bahta.
”Could not live my life

The road to a Swedish citizenship has been long for Meraf Bahta. After having been rejected last summer Bahta could not compete in the World Championships in Moscow. But four months later, the day before Christmas Eve, the Migration Board changed its view and granted citizenship.

Before that Bahta left his native Eritrea when she suddenly called into military service in 2009.

I could not live my life. And I could not keep running as I do now, says Bahta.
”Very nervous

She found a cheap flight to Sweden and ended up in a refugee camp in Älvsbyn in Norrbotten – in the middle of the Swedish winter.

I had never seen snow before in my entire life. It was very cold, dark and freezing temperatures. It was the night the whole day. I thought, ”how can I live here? ’. I never saw any people on the street. It very nervous, she says in the program Skavlan.

After a time, took the Swedish Athletic Association contact Bahta he now calls his Swedish dad Ulf Björklund – who along with wife Bodil received Bahta on the Kode north of Gothenburg. There she was able to continue practicing running.

It meant so much to me. I forgot my problems for a little awhile. I met many new people and teammates, and could talk about other things, she says.

Today she lives with continued with his Swedish family and a Swedish coach.

Without them I would not be living here now. They mean a lot to me, says Bahta.

 

 

Cycling in Eritrea: Five Photos That Capture a National Obsession

Eritrea has one of Africa’s most unique sporting crazes.

Cycling is immensely popular in Eritrea. Every weekend, thousands of amateurs speed along isolated roads, over mountain passes and across deserts. Between them, the country’s 6 million people own some 500,000 bicycles.

keulen-eritrea-1The sport’s event of the year is the “Giro dell’Eritrea,” a 700-mile, 10-stage event, that is Africa’s oldest cycle race. It was first organized in 1946 by the country’s Italian expatriate community, but with local people barred from entering.

Political unrest led to the race being cancelled the following year, and it was only resurrected 54 years later in 2001, ten years after Eritrea had secured its independence.

The race has been run every year since then – always along roads packed with spectators. The event is a huge celebration in the country, followed by some one-third of the country’s population.

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