Zersenay Tadese

Zersenay Tadese
Zersenay Tadese, 2007
nation	Eritrea
birthday	8th February 1982 (age 38)
place of birth	Adi Bana ,  Eritrea
Career
National squad	since 2002
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games bronze Athens 2004 10,000 m  World championships silver Berlin 2009 10,000 m  Half marathon world championships gold Debrecen 2006 20 km gold Udine 2007 - gold Rio de Janeiro 2008 - gold Birmingham 2009 - silver Nanning 2010 - gold Kawarna 2012 -  World Cross Country Championships silver Saint-Galmier 2005 Long haul gold Mombasa 2007 - bronze Edinburgh 2008 - bronze Amman 2009 -
last change: July 27, 2017

Zersenay Tadese (also written Zersenay Tadesse ; born February 8, 1982 in Adi Bana ) is an Eritrean long-distance runner .

Career

It was not until 2002 that he started to compete and soon had successes on the track as well as in cross and road running .

In 2003 he was ninth at the World Cross Country Championships , eighth in the 10,000 meter run at the World Championships in Paris / Saint-Denis and seventh at the World Half Marathon Championships in Vilamoura . In 2004 he finished sixth at the World Cross Country Championships and won the Bern Grand Prix (10 miles) with a course record.

2004 Olympic Games

At the Olympic Games in Athens he was the first athlete to win an Olympic medal for Eritrea when he was only beaten over 10,000 meters by the two Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine . He finished seventh in the 5000 meter run .

In 2005 he won silver at the World Cross Country Championships , but suffered a setback at the World Championships in Helsinki when he was only sixth over 10,000 meters despite a national record time of 27: 12.82 minutes and only 14th over 5000 meters. He then presented himself in top form at the Great North Run : On the half marathon course, which was not suitable for the best list , he set a course record of 59:05 minutes.

In 2006 he finished fourth at the World Cross Country Championships , set best times over 5000 and 10,000 meters with 12: 59.27 min and 26: 37.25 min, won the Great Manchester Run and the Rotterdam Half Marathon, and won the road running 2006 World Championships in Debrecen over 20 km with a time of 56:01 min his first world championship title. His second followed at the 2007 Cross Country World Championships in Mombasa, where he ended Kenenisa Bekele's winning streak, which has been going on since 2002.

At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka , he ensured a high pace for a long time, but had to admit defeat here to Bekele, who won, while Tadese crossed the finish line in fourth. A victory at Dam tot Damloop was followed by defending his title at the road running world championships in Udine over the half marathon distance with his personal best of 58:59 minutes.

In 2008 in Edinburgh and in 2009 in Amman he was third in each of the World Cross Country Championships, and in the Olympic Games in Beijing he was fifth over 10,000 meters. As the winner of the World 10K Bangalore 2008 he set the fastest time on Indian soil with 27:51 minutes, and at the World Half Marathon Championships in Rio de Janeiro he became the first runner to win gold for the third time.

World Championships 2009

At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin , he again competed over 10,000 meters. Shortly after the halfway point he took the lead and shook off all competitors with an increase in pace over the next four kilometers except for Kenenisa Bekele, who in turn started a final sprint shortly after the start of the last lap, which the Eritrean could not follow. Zersenay, however, clearly maintained second place and won the silver medal in 26: 50.12 minutes. At the Half Marathon World Championships in Birmingham , he won his fourth title in a row.

In 2010 he won the Lisbon Half Marathon in a world record time of 58:23 minutes.
At the Half Marathon World Championships in Kawarna he won his fifth title, at the Great Birmingham Run he was third.
In the London Marathon , however, he could not keep up with the top group and came in seventh. In summer he was in top form and won the Giro di Castelbuono . A silver medal at the World Half Marathon Championships in Nanning was followed by a win at the San Silvestre Vallecana at the end of the year .

In 2011 he defended his title in Lisbon, was fourth at the World Championships in Daegu over 10,000 meters and won the Porto Half Marathon and the São Silvestre de Luanda.

The following year he won the Lisbon Half Marathon for the third time in a row and started again at the London Marathon, in which he only came in 14th despite his personal best.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the Olympic Games in Beijing , he ran over 10,000 meters in sixth place.

In 2013 he won the Prague Half Marathon and the Gifu Seiryū Half Marathon in spring . In the fall he started the Chicago Marathon , but gave up halfway through the race.

On May 6, 2017, he started together with Lelisa Desisa and Eliud Kipchoge on the Formula 1 circuit in Monza for “Breaking2” with an attempt by running shoe manufacturer Nike to run the marathon in under two hours. The project failed.

Zersenay Tadese is 1.60 m tall and has a competition weight of 56 kg. His younger brother Kidane Tadasse is also successful as a long-distance runner.

Personal bests

• 3000 m : 7: 39.93 min, May 13, 2005, Doha
• 5000 m : 12: 59.27 min, July 14, 2006, Rome (Eritrean record)
• 10,000 m : 26: 37.25 min, August 15, 2006, Brussels (Eritrean record)
• 10 km road run : 27:24 min, May 20, 2007, Manchester (Eritrean record)
• Half marathon : 58:23 min, March 21, 2010, Lisbon ( until October 28, 2018)
• Marathon : 2:08:46 h, September 16, 2018, Berlin
• Breaking-2-Marathon: 2:06:51 h, May 6, 2017,  Monza  ( Autodromo Nazionale Monza )

Web links

Commons : Zersenay Tadese  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Zersenay Tadese in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Zersenay Tadese in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait at IAAF - Focus on Athletes ( Memento from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), August 21, 2004 (updated October 11, 2007)

Footnotes

1. ^ IAAF: Tadesse runs 59:05 Half Marathon at Great North Run . September 18, 2005
2. ^ IAAF: Tadesse and Adere win, as numerous national 10km records fall in Manchester . May 21, 2006
3. ^ IAAF: Zersenay Tadesse wins third Fortis Half Marathon equalling course record of 59:16 . September 11, 2006
4. ^ IAAF: Tadesse's "solo" last 10k secures emphatic victory - Men's 20km, Debrecen 2006 . October 8, 2006
5. ^ IAAF: Tadesse not yet a marathon man - Debrecen 2006 . October 9, 2006
6. ^ IAAF: Tadesse takes upset victory as Bekele registers a "DNF" - Mombasa 2007 . March 24, 2007
7. ^ IAAF: Tadesse - powerful and poised in response to Bekele's problems . March 25, 2007
8. ^ IAAF: World champion Tadesse makes Udine preparations with "Dam tot Dam" loop win . September 24, 2007
9. ^ IAAF: Tadese successfully defends in Udine - Men's Race Report . October 14, 2007
10. ^ IAAF: "It felt like the whole of Eritrea was running with me" - Tadese . October 14, 2007
11. ^ IAAF: Tadese the men's 10km victor, while Abeylegesse and Momanyi share women's spoils in Bangalore . May 18, 2008
12. ^ IAAF: Emphatic third triumph; Tadese goes solo from 5km - Men's Race Report, Rio 2008 . October 12, 2008
13. ^ IAAF: Tadese - confident in victory and his sporting plans at least - Rio 2008 . October 12, 2008
14. ^ IAAF: Tadese makes it four in a row - Men's Race Report - World Half Marathon, Birmingham . October 11, 2009
15. ^ IAAF: Tadese, a man for all surfaces - World Half Marathon, Birmingham . October 11, 2009
16. ^ IAAF: Scorching 58:23 World Half Marathon record by Tadese in Lisbon! . March 21, 2010
17. ↑ Leichtathletik.de: 58:23 minutes! Zersenay Tadese with world record . March 21, 2010
18. ^ IAAF: With dominating run, Tadese takes fifth title in Kavarna - Men's race Report - World Half Marathon Championships . October 6, 2012
19. ^ IAAF: Tadese cruises in Castelbueno . July 27, 2010
20. ^ IAAF: Fulfilling favorite roles, Tadese and Augusto prevail in Madrid . January 1, 2011
21. ↑ IAAF: Tadese blazes 58:30 in Lisbon, second fastest Half Marathon ever . March 20, 2011
22. ^ IAAF: Tadese under one hour in Oporto . September 18, 2011
23. ↑ IAAF: Tadese collects third consecutive win in Lisbon . March 25, 2012
24. ^ IAAF: Cherono breaks course record in Prague as Tadese out-sprints team-mate . April 6, 2013
25. ^ IAAF: Course records for Tadese and Tufa at Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon . May 19, 2013
26. ↑ Breaking2: Questions and Answers
27. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Marathon under two hours: Eliud Kipchoge just fails FAZ Online, May 6, 2017.
28. ↑ # Breaking2: Eliud Kipchoge goes close to sub-two hour marathon at Nike event . In: BBC Sport . May 6, 2017 ( bbc.com [accessed July 27, 2017]).