Ethiopia: Gashaw and Gebrselama Emerge Winners of Great Ethiopian Run

The postponed Great Ethiopian Run on Sunday crowned Abe Gashaw for the men and Tsige Gebrselama for the women. Gashaw, 22, won the 10-kilometer race with 28:19, his second victory after his 2016 win.

For a large part of the race, he ran behind training partner and friend, Tadesse Worku but overtook in the final stretch.

Gashaw, a member of the Amhara Prisons Club, said he had prepared in a focused way for this race, choosing to stay in his home town of Debre Birhan (altitude 2,840m) and only coming to Addis Ababa in time for the athletes’ COVID-19 pre-race testing on Friday morning.

Gebrselama won the women’s race in 32:32. Her victory comes after she narrowly missed out on first place two years ago due to misdirection in the race’s final 200M.

A total of 9000 participants took part in the mass races. It’s far fewer than the last race last year when some 30,000 competed. COVID-19 precautions were made this year and the race had been postponed for two months.

The race was staged in three waves set off at fifteen-minute intervals, everyone had their temperatures checked when arriving at the event. Runners also had to wear masks before and after the 10k run.