It’s been 12 years since Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele final placed on his nation’s singlet at an Olympic Video games, however he has formally earned his spot on the Ethiopian marathon workforce for Paris 2024.
As reported by ESPN, Bekele is one in every of three males chosen by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation to characterize Ethiopia within the marathon on the 2024 Paris Olympics. This can be Bekele’s fourth Olympic Video games and the primary time he has represented his nation within the marathon. He has beforehand received 4 Olympic medals (three gold, one silver) throughout the 5,000m and 10,000m occasions, at Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).
Bekele earned his spot on the Ethiopian workforce after a superb exhibiting on the 2024 London Marathon, the place he positioned second behind Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso, in 2:04:15 (a males’s 40+ world file). His time was 4 seconds quicker than his earlier grasp’s greatest, from the 2023 Valencia Marathon in December (2:04:19).
Bekele will face his long-time rival, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, at one remaining Olympic Video games within the streets of Paris, nearly precisely 20 years after their first Olympic matchup in Athens. Kipchoge and Bekele are two of the quickest marathoners in historical past, and are a part of the unique membership of 4 males who’ve gone underneath the two:02 marathon mark.
Becoming a member of Bekele on the Ethiopian workforce is one other athlete in that unique membership, Sisay Lemma. Lemma has a private greatest of two:01:53 from the Valencia Marathon in December. Most lately, Lemma received the 2024 Boston Marathon in 2:06:17, ending Evans Chebet of Kenya’s two-year reign.
2022 world marathon champion and 2023 New York Metropolis Marathon champion Tamirat Tola rounds out the Ethiopian squad. The troublesome 2024 Paris Olympic course fits Tola’s type of racing properly, and he’ll definitely be one of many favourites to win gold and finish Kenya’s streak of champions. Ethiopia has not received gold within the males’s marathon since Gezahegne Abera in Sydney in 2000.
World file holder Tigist Assefa named to her first Olympics
On the ladies’s facet, the world file holder, Tigist Assefa, has been named to her first Olympic Video games for Ethiopia. Assefa set the working world on hearth final September with a jaw-dropping world file on the 2023 Berlin Marathon–two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds.
Assefa has had a well-polished marathon profession thus far, profitable two of her 4 races and ending on the rostrum in three. Most lately, she completed second to Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir (the defending Olympic champion) on the 2024 London Marathon, with a time of two:16:23. This was Assefa’s first loss at an Abbott World Marathon Main.
All eyes can be on the 27-year-old as she tackles the daunting Paris course, which options greater than 400 metres of elevation acquire. This can be Assefa’s hardest problem up to now.
Becoming a member of Assefa on the Ethiopian workforce are two skilled marathoners: 2023 world champion Amane Beriso and 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase. Beriso has completed within the high three of her final six marathons and has thrived in hotter race circumstances, taking wins in Budapest, Mexico Metropolis and Valencia. Gebreslase has been on the rostrum within the marathon on the final two world championships.
Like the lads, the Ethiopian ladies’s workforce seems to finish the streak of their East African rival, Kenya. Ethiopia has not received gold within the ladies’s marathon since Tiki Gelena on the London 2012 Olympics.
