Tsegaye Kebede
Tsegay Kebede (also: Tsegaye Kebede, born 15 January 1987) is an Ethiopian marathon runner.
As the fifth of 13 siblings in the family of a carpet maker, he grew up in the city of Gerar Ber (40 km north of Addis Ababa ) in abject poverty and had to work as herders to contribute to family income and to pay for the school. In 1995 he started with the Running, but had to hide from his father, who thought it was a waste of time his training.
2006 at a local race of the coach and manager Getaneh Tessema was aware of him. For an invitation to the training group, he was beaten during a test run only on their Star Deriba Merga.
The following year, Tsegay Kebede had made such progress that he wanted to take part in international races. However, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation refused to support him during the visa acquisition, because he did not belong to an established Athletics Club. His coach let him instead start at Abebe Bikila International Marathon in Addis Ababa. Although he had recently escaped in a bus accident just with life, he presented 2:15:34 h on a track record for lying in well over 2,000 m course.
His visa problems had done so, and that started in the fall of the Amsterdam Marathon. He managed to keep up a long time in the fast top group, and the time of 2:08:16 h, which he scored in eighth, was the second fastest of an Ethiopian behind the 2007 world record run of Haile Gebrselassie.
At the start of the following season, he finished the RAK Half Marathon second place in 59:35 min. His next major success was winning the Paris Marathon 2008 with a time of 2:06:40 h, with whom he nominated for the Olympic Games in Beijing secured. At the World 10K Bangalore he finished third.
When Olympic marathon he had on the second half long a residue from one minute to the group of five riders. Up to 40 km, he worked his way to fourth place. On the stadium lap he overtook his compatriot and training partner Deriba Merga and won in 2:10:00 h the bronze medal behind Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (KEN ) and Jaouad Gharib (MAR ).
At the end of the season he won the Fukuoka Marathon in December in a personal best of 2:06:10 h, making it not only improved the course record by 29 seconds, but also the fastest time achieved on Japanese soil at all.
London Marathon 2009 Tsegay Kebede presented again a personal best of 2:05:20 h on, was after a thrilling finish second behind Samuel Kamau Wanjiru and repressed this time Jaouad Gharib to third place.
In a marathon, the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, he belonged to the eight -man lead group that had formed at kilometer 20. When he was five kilometers fallen behind this, he managed to advance Mutai in the closing kilometers, to the bronze medal behind the Kenyans Abel Kirui and Emmanuel Kipchirchir. In December Tsegay Kebede defended his title at the Fukuoka Marathon and improved the course record at 2:05:18.
2010 were all medalists from the 2008 Olympic Games and the World Championships 2009 at the start of the London Marathon. At kilometer 32, there Tsegay Kebede took the lead and ran to the finish a lead of over a minute out. With 2:05:19 h, it remained just above his personal and the course record. In the autumn he was expelled at the Chicago Marathon in a thrilling duel by Wanjiru on the second place.
In 2011 he finished fifth at the New York City Marathon in London and third parties. His third place in London in 2012 was not enough to re- qualify for the Olympics. At the Chicago Marathon in 2012, he won the first Ethiopians in 2:04,38 h with a personal best and a new course record. In 2013, he won for the second time after 2010 the London Marathon in 2:06:04 h