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Natives of the small African nation of Eritrea reportedly try to escape from the Red Sea state every year, with many losing their lives making perilous sea-crossings in a desperate bid to reach Europe.

Sport, however, appears to offer a more viable escape route for many of them with numerous instances of national football squad members claiming asylum after competing abroad.

In late 2012, one squad went missing after going shopping ahead of their scheduled return home to Eritrea, whose human rights record is considered to be very poor.

The BBC reported last year that Uganda had granted them asylum and, according to the AD newspaper in Holland, they hung around Kampala for a while before ending up in the riverside town east of Rotterdam by the way of Romania.

Arie van Hoven, of the local food bank, told the paper the group had a terrible journey to get there.

“They arrived with almost nothing. We’ve been looking for furniture and mattresses for them.”

Gorinchem’s mayor Anton Barske told RTL news the group are terrified that something may happen to their families and want to avoid publicity.

He said the group was invited to the Netherlands by the Dutch government when they were in Romania and had already started learning Dutch while in the eastern European country.

“They wanted to stay together as a group and that was possible here,” he said.

“They are going to integrate and need an education. Then they will be able to build a new life.”

In 2012, the United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay accused the Asmara government of meting out summary executions, torture and detaining thousands of political prisoners.

18 months prior to the absconding in Uganda, 13 players from an Eritrean club side sought refuge in Tanzania. In 2009, a dozen members of the national team disappeared in Kenya.

BOSTON — Something unusual happened when Meb Keflezighi, far ahead of his competitors, began passing some of the elite women who had started before the men on Monday in the Boston Marathon. As he charged by, many of the women — exhausted and in pain — cheered him on.

Three years ago, Keflezighi was widely considered to be on the downward slope of his marathon career. He had lost his Nike shoe sponsorship. His best running days were probably behind him.

Keflezighi managed to find a new shoe sponsor, but the company was not exactly a powerhouse in the running world. He was picked up by Skechers, a brand primarily known for skateboard shoes.

On Monday, Keflezighi, who turns 39 in two weeks, introduced the running world to Skechers as he and his red and silver sneakers stepped across the finish line of the Boston Marathon a good 11 seconds ahead of anyone else.

Keflezighi was the first American man to win the race in more than 30 years.

The story of Meb Keflezighi, the oldest Boston Marathon winner since at least 1930, would have been resonant any year.

But his surprising victory was especially powerful this year, the first Boston Marathon since the 2013 bombing that killed three people, wounded hundreds and ravaged an exultant city tradition more than a century old.

“This is probably the most meaningful victory for an American because of what happened last year,” he said. “I’m almost 39. I just ran a personal best. I just won the Boston Marathon. I feel blessed.”

After 2 hours 8 minutes 37 seconds of hard running, Keflezighi stepped across the finish line at Boylston Street with his arms spread nearly as wide as the finish tape, nearly as wide as his smile. The record-setting crowd got a clear view of his bib which read, simply, “Meb.”

To the deafening cheers of the throngs that gathered to watch the race, Keflezighi changed Boylston Street from a place remembered for the carnage that happened there into a place for celebration and delight.

Keflezighi gave fist bumps to the enormous crowds in the finish area, not far from where the blasts occurred. He was embraced by the 1983 men’s champion, Greg Meyer, the previous American man to win the race. He shook hands with Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs last year when he attended the race to cheer on his girlfriend, Erin Hurley. On Monday, Bauman and Hurley returned to the finish line — the two are now engaged and expecting their first child.

The race, the world’s oldest annually run marathon, felt like a catharsis for this city. A crowd of one million people, twice the usual number, showed up to cheer the runners, which featured 36,000 athletes, 9,000 more than usual.

Twice as many law enforcement officials patrolled the racecourse as well, a sobering reminder of just one way that the blasts had reshaped the race.

The list of winners of all major marathons in recent decades is dominated by Kenyans and Ethiopians. (Wilson Chebet and Frankline Chepkwony, both of Kenya, finished second and third this year.) Runners from those countries had won 24 of the 30 Boston Marathons since 1983.

Nothing about Keflezighi’s story fits history or convention.

One of 10 children, Keflezighi (pronounced kah-FLEZ-ghee) fled to Italy from Eritrea with his mother and his siblings while his father worked cleaning jobs to support the family while arranging for them to immigrate to San Diego. In the seventh grade, he ran a 5:10 mile. (On Monday, he sustained a pace of 4:54 over the 26.2 miles.) He was a high school champion who went on to thrive at U.C.L.A. and then win a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

At age 34, Keflezighi won the 2009 New York City Marathon, becoming the first American winner in that race since 1982.

On Monday, a moment of silence was held at 8:45 a.m. to honor last year’s victims.

Keflezighi and Josphat Boit pulled away from the pack midway through the race. Once the runners hit the hills of Newton, about 10 miles from the finish, Keflezighi made his pivotal move. “He was so far away,” said Chebet, the runner-up. “I couldn’t see Meb. I only saw straight road.”

Keflezighi said he fought off a stomach ailment around the 20th mile and then “prayed a lot” to make it to the finish line ahead of the fast-closing Kenyans.

Chebet finished in 2:08:48. The defending men’s champion, Lelisa Desisa, who is 15 years younger than Keflezighi, dropped out near the 22-mile mark, race officials said.

Rita Jeptoo of Kenya defended her women’s title, pulling away in the final three miles to easily win Boston for the third time. Jeptoo, 33, set a course record, 2:18:57.

Each winner receives $150,000, but Keflezighi said that the victory was worth far more than the amount written on the congratulatory check.

“My career is fulfilled,” he said. “Since 2008, it’s been frosting on the cake. It’s just getting better and better.”

The New York Times

  Eritrea have pulled out of the qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the Confederation of African Football has confirmed.

They had been due to face South Sudan in the first round of the preliminary phase over two legs in April.

South Sudan, entering the competition for the first time, will now go though to the preliminary phase second round.

No reason has been given for Eritrea’s withdrawal, but recent defections by players may have led to the decision.

Seventeen players from the Eritrean squad, plus the team doctor, absconded at the 2012 East and Central Africa Senior Challenge Cup in Uganda.

In 2011, 13 Eritrean players sought asylum in Tanzania after the same tournament, while 12 members of the Eritrea squad disappeared and sought asylum in Kenya during the regional tournament in 2009.

Four Eritrean athletes also left their base and sought political asylum in Britain after the London Olympics in 2012.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 Eritreans flee the small east African country every month, a United Nations report said last year.

South Sudan will find out who they will play in the second round when the draw is made on Sunday, 27 April in Cairo.

 
BBC

21-year-old Geoffrey Kipsang has shown the potential to be a senior world champion, but now he’s got a world title to prove it as he won the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon championship today in Copenhagen in 59:07 ahead of Eritrea’s Samuel Tsegay and Ethiopia’s Guye Adola, who both ran 59:20.

Finishing fourth was 5-time world half marathon Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, who was unable to win a record sixth individual World Half Marathon title today, but it was a great day for tiny Eritrea nonetheless as the tiny country of just 6 million plus won gold in the team competition as the top three Eritrean runners all broke an hour. With Tsegay in second (59:20), Tadese in fourth (59:37) and Nguse Amlosom (59:37) in fifth, Eritrea’s top three man total time of 2:58:59 was by far the best on the day.

If more than three men scored, Eritrea still would have won the team title as their two other finishers weren’t far behind – Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (7th 60:09) and Samson Gebreyghannes (8th 60:12).

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