Ayele Abshero Biza ( am, አየለ አብሽሮ ቢዛ, born 28 December 1990) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who mainly competes in cross country and road races. He came to prominence with a junior silver medal at the

2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 30, 2008. The races were held at the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Four races took place, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All race ...

before taking the junior title in 2009. He won the 2008 Zevenheuvelenloop and 2011

Egmond Half Marathon The Egmond Half Marathon ( nl, Egmond Halve Marathon) is an annual half marathon race over 21.1 kilometres that has been staged in Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands since 1973. The competition normally takes place in early January. Sections of the road ...

races. He made the fastest-ever marathon debut in history at the 2012

Dubai Marathon The Dubai Marathon is an annual road-based marathon hosted by Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 1998. The marathon is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athletics. History Initial era The inaugural Dubai Marathon was held ...

, winning in a time of 2:04:23 hours, which was the fourth-fastest ever.

Career

He began to take running seriously in order to follow in the footsteps of his older brother,

Tessema Abshero Tessema Abshero (; born 9 December 1986) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He finished tenth in the 5000 metres at the 2002 African Championships. At the 2003 World Cross Country Championships he finished twelfth in the short race, while ...

, who is an accomplished marathon runner. He also was inspired by the longevity and success of fellow Ethiopian runner

Haile Gebrselassie Haile Gebrselassie ( am, ኀይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ, ''haylē gebre silassē''; born 18 April 1973) is an Ethiopian retired long-distance track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals and four World Champion ...

. Ayele ran at the 2007

Great Ethiopian Run The Great Ethiopian Run ( am, ታላቁ ሩጫ በኢትዮጵያ) is an annual 10-kilometre road running event which takes place in late November in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Overview The competition was first envisioned by neighbors Ethiopian runn ...

, and just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish behind Feyisa Lilesa. His first opportunity to represent Ethiopia at a major competition came at the

. He competed in the junior men's race and remained near the front in the later stages, eventually taking second place behind teammate

Ibrahim Jeilan Ibrahim Jeilan Gashu ( Amharic: ዕብራህም ጅእላን ጋሹ; born 12 June 1989) is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner who specialises in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres on the track, as well as cross country running. He i ...

. This performance earned him two silver medals, individually and with the Ethiopian team. Later that year he took part in the Zevenheuvelenloop road race in Nijmegen. He won the race in a personal best time of 45:15 minutes, defeating Olympic champion

Kenenisa Bekele Kenenisa Bekele ( om, Qananiisaa baqqalaa; am, ቀነኒሳ በቀለ; born 13 June 1982) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He was the world record holder in both the 5000-metre and 10000-metre from 2004 (5,000m) and 2005 (10,000m) unti ...

and his brother Tariku Bekele. This performance ranked him third-fastest over the distance that year. Ayele began the following season with a win at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza race and won by a margin of thirteen seconds, finishing far ahead of senior cross country medallists Moses Mosop and

Leonard Komon Leonard Patrick Komon (born 10 January 1988) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner and was the List of world records in athletics, world record holder in the 10 kilometres. His 10K world record in 2010 with a time of 26:44 is a 17 seco ...

. After a top-five finish at the Cross Internacional de Itálica, he returned to lead the Ethiopian junior team at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He was the favourite to win the race and fulfilled the predictions, taking the junior gold medal ahead of the persevering Kenyan Titus Mbishei who had pushed the race tempo throughout. He ran on the track in Europe that summer and set a 5000 metres best of 13:11.38 minutes and 27:54.29 for the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...

in July. The following month, he ran for Ethiopia at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships and came fourth in the 5000 m. At the end of the year he again entered a Dutch 15K race, this time the Montferland Run, where he finished third some distance behind the winner Nicholas Manza Kamakya. With many of Ethiopia's main runners absent, he gained a place on the men's senior team for the

2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw in ...

with a runner-up performance at the Jan Meda Cross Country. He finished the race in 24th position and, as the fifth finisher among the Ethiopians, his score did not count towards the team competition. He took to the European road circuit in August, winning the Omloop race in

Hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...

with a 10K best of 28:11 minutes. In September, he was third at the 10K race held at the Tilburg Ten Miles and took third again at the

Dam tot Damloop Dam tot Damloop (''Dam to Dam Run'' in English) is an annual road running competition held in North Holland in the Netherlands. It is a Silver Label 10-mile race from Amsterdam to Zaandam. The event was first held as a fun run event in 1985 and ...

. He secured victory at the

with half a minute to spare at the start of 2011, recording a time of 1:02:23 for his debut over the distance. He improved upon this soon after at the City-Pier-City Loop, where he recorded 59:42 minutes for fourth in a tightly contested race. Ayele made his debut over the marathon distance, on a record-eligible course, at the 2012

in January. On a new course, he made the fastest-ever marathon debut with a course record time of 2:04:23 hours. Moses Mosop ran a debut marathon of 2:03:06 at the 2011 Boston Marathon, but the course was not record-eligible. His time was 30 seconds faster than the course record set by

in 2008 and made him the fourth-fastest marathoner ever. He won April's

Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon The Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon (Chinese language, Chinese: 扬州鉴真国际半程马拉松赛) is an annual road running competition over the half marathon distance which takes place in April in Yangzhou, People's Republic of ...

and was one second off

Deriba Merga Deriba Merga Ejigu ( am, ደርባ መርጋ አጅጉ; born 26 October 1980) is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner. He mainly competes in the marathon. He finished fourth in that event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and went on to win ...

's course record. He was chosen for the Ethiopian Olympic marathon team in May and set a 10K best of 27:56 minutes for third place at the Great Manchester Run later that week.

Competition record

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1990 births Ethiopian male long-distance runners Ethiopian male marathon runners Olympic athletes of Ethiopia Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Living people