Elfenesh Alemu

Elfenesh Alemu (born June 10, 1975 in Lemo Arya near Bekoji ) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who specializes in the marathon .

She grew up with ten siblings in the province of Arsi , from which many other prominent athletes come, and already had sporting success in school with her younger sister Asnakech, who later married the long-distance runner Habte Jifar .

In 1997 she finished 15th at the World Athletics Championships in Athens . In the same year she achieved her first big victory at the Amsterdam Marathon . The following year she was second in the Barcelona Marathon , fifth in the Cologne Marathon and third in the Amsterdam Marathon.

In 1999 she finished second in the Nagano Marathon in 2:28:59 for the first time below the two and a half hour mark. At the 1999 World Cup in Seville, she was fifth in 2:28:52.

The following year she climbed to 2:24:47 (fourth place in the Osaka Women's Marathon ), won the Nagano Marathon in 2:24:55 and was sixth in the marathon of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

In 2001 she was fifth in the London Marathon in her personal best of 2:24:29 and second in the Chicago Marathon in 2:24:54 behind Catherine Ndereba , who set a world record in this race.

In 2002 she was third in the Boston Marathon . The following year she was sixth at the 2003 World Championships in Paris / Saint-Denis and won the Tokyo International Women's Marathon in 2:24:47.

At the Boston Marathon the following year, she finished second with her sixth sub-2:25 time. She finished fourth in the 2004 Sydney Olympics and finished third in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon at the end of the season.

In 2005, as in the previous year, she was second in Boston and third in Tokyo; she also finished second in the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego.

Elfenesh Alemu is 1.67 m tall, weighs 51 kg and is looked after by the Ethiopian national coach Yilma Berta. In 2003 she married the marathon runner Gezahegne Abera , with whom she lives in Addis Ababa . The wedding was one of the largest in Addis Ababa, with around 25,000 guests also including runners Derartu Tulu , Fatuma Roba and Haile Gebrselassie .

Web links

• Elfenesh Alemu in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait on marathoninfo.free.fr
• Portrait at IAAF - Focus on Athletes ( Memento from February 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), August 21, 2004