Miruts Yifter

Miruts Yifter
Suleiman Nyambui (649), Miruts Yifter (191), Kaarlo Maaninka (208)
nation	Ethiopia
birthday	unsure (possibly May 15, 1944)
place of birth	Adigrat
size	162 cm
Weight	53 kg
date of death	December 23, 2016
Place of death	Toronto ,  Canada
Career
discipline	Long distance running
Best performance	13: 13.82 min ( 5000 m ) 27: 40.96 min ( 10,000 m )
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 1 × African Championships 2 × 0 × 0 × Pan-African Games 1 × 1 × 0 × Cross Country World Championship 2 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games bronze Munich 1972 10,000 m gold Moscow 1980 5000 m gold Moscow 1980 10,000 m  African Championships gold Dakar 1979 5000 m gold Dakar 1979 10,000 m  Africa Games gold Lagos 1973 10,000 m silver Lagos 1973 5000 m  World Cross Country Championships gold Madrid 1981 team gold Rome 1982 team

Miruts Yifter (also: Muruse Yefter ; * uncertain: May 15, 1944 in Adigrat , Tigray Province ; † December 23, 2016 in Toronto , Ontario , Canada ) was an Ethiopian athlete . The long-distance runner was a two-time Olympic champion in 1980 .

biography

In his youth, Yifter worked as a delivery truck driver for various companies. His talent as a long-distance runner was discovered while serving in the Ethiopian Air Force . At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , Yifter was third over 10,000 meters , but appeared too late for the final of the 5,000 meter race , according to him because of an oversight by his coach. In 1973 he won gold over 5000 meters and silver over 10,000 meters at the Pan-African Games . The boycott of Ethiopia, which joined the other African countries, prevented his participation in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal . In 1979 he was the African champion over 5000 and 10,000 meters.

At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow , he took the lead about 300 meters from the finish line in the 10,000 meter race with one of his characteristic increases in tempo, which had earned him the nickname "Yifter the Shifter", and won with over a second Head Start. Five days later, in the final of the 5000 meter run, Yifter was circled on the final lap. But 300 meters from the finish his compatriot Mohamed Kedir made way for him, and Yifter sprinted to victory.

One of the biggest secrets about the Moscow Games was its age, which is estimated to be between 33 and 42 years old. Yifter himself refused to give an exact answer, telling reporters:

“Men can steal my chickens, men can steal my sheep. But no man can steal my age. "

In the 1990s, Miruts Yifter moved to Canada , where he worked as an athletic trainer.

Web links

Commons : Miruts Yifter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Miruts yifter in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Miruts Yifter in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Miruts Yifter . Brief portrait on the IOC website
• Miruts Yifter . Sporting Heroes, accessed December 23, 2016.
• Miruts Yifter . Short biography on MediaETHIOPIA
• Elshadai Negash: Miruts Yifter - 'Bekele reminds me of myself'. IAAF , August 14, 2004, accessed December 23, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Tomas Magnusson: Olympic Games 5000 meters - 1980 . Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS), May 3, 2002, accessed December 23, 2016.
2. ↑ The Sports Day: Ethiopian cross-country skiing legend dies . n-tv.de , December 23, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
3. ↑ Miruts Yifter. Confederation of African Athletics , 2013, archived from the original on September 20, 2013 ; accessed on December 23, 2016 (English).