Bekele Debele
Bekele Debele (born March 12, 1963 ) is a former Ethiopian long-distance runner .
Shortly after his 20th birthday, he surprised the world's elite when he won the title at the 1983 World Cross Country Championships in Gateshead. It was the closest decision in the history of this competition as the Portuguese Carlos Lopes was registered in second and the Kenyan Some Muge in third with the same time as the winner.
In the same year he was tenth in the 10,000 meter run of the World Championships in Helsinki . In the run-up he set his personal best with 27: 49.30 minutes.
In 1984 he was eighth at the World Cross Country Championships in East Rutherford, the best of his team, which won gold as in the previous year. The boycott of his country prevented participation in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles . At the Druzhba games in Moscow, which were scheduled for the boycotting countries, he was third over 10,000 meters.
In the following two years he was fourth at the World Cross Country Championships and won gold with the Ethiopian team in Lisbon in 1985 and silver in Colombier NE in 1986. In 1987 in Warsaw he came in 45th place and took bronze with the team. The team also received bronze in 1989 in Stavanger, where he finished 13th.
Web links
- Bekele Debele in the database of World Athletics (English)
- Bekele Debele, el meior "hombrecillo verde" , interview by Juan Mora in El País , January 29, 1984 (Spanish)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1983 Gateshead W XC . Video on YouTube , posted on July 17th, 2008 (10:20 min)
- ^ Gbrathletics: Olympic Boycott Games
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Debele, Bekele |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ethiopian long distance runner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 12, 1963 |