Lack of training facilities challenges Team Ethiopia ahead of 2023 World Championships

ADDIS ABABA, August 17, 2023 - Talking to the athletes and coaches of Team Ethiopia, ahead of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest they will tell you different challenges they are facing in their preparations, depending on whom you are talking to. Lack of clarity in selection criteria of athletes and coaches, maintaining consistency in their decisions by the Federation; Lack of competition management by the athletes and their managers etc… However, there is one major problem that everybody has agreed about, which is the lack of proper training facilities.

BIZARRE ISSUE It’s bizarre that in a country like Ethiopia, with a great deal of athletics success history, athletes and coaches are complaining about lack of proper training facilities ahead of a major global championships.

CONSISTENT CRY “We have been crying the whole year asking EAF to sort this problem by discussing with government and it looks like our consistent cry falls on deaf ears. The main Addis Ababa stadium track is demolished under the name of reconstruction. The terrain of Addis Ababa Mountains where our athletes usually trained for endurance is no more, because they have been used for major construction development project. The only available track is the one we are currently using at Ethiopian youth sport academy, which is extremely overloaded with greater demand,” says Hussien Shebo, Head coach of the long distance team.

NEGLECTED Marathon world champion, Tamirat Tolla, shared the concern of the head coach of the track team. “It’s so heart breaking that, Ethiopian athletics is being neglected this much by the concerned bodies. Athletics have done too much for this country; from promoting Ethiopia positively to instilling winning and perseverance mentality to its people, brought hard currency and creating many jobs in terms of investment. However, we don’t even have a proper place for athletes to train. How the government failed to build 10km separate asphalt for us to train well is beyond my thoughts? As a result, we are currently running on the highways around Sululta and Lege Tafo with a risk of being hit by speedy cars,” Tamirat lamented.

EVERYONE AFFECTED The head coach of Ethiopia’s promising steeplechase team, Teshome Kebede, had this to say as well, “Lack of training facilities affected everyone, especially the steeplechase athletes, because we only have one track and if I put the hurdles to train, then the other athletes could not practice, so we have to push our schedule from our favourable times. I advise the stakeholders to think ahead and make amends for the next year Olympic preparations.”

REALITY This is the reality and a concern shared by all of the great Ethiopian athletes who dominates the world of athletics and their coaches, in or outside the world championships camp. Meanwhile, the Minster for Culture & Sport Ministry, HE, Kejela Merdassa, promised the athletes to finalize the renovation of Addis Ababa Stadium track for the preparation of Paris 2024 Olympics at the farewell ceremony of Team Ethiopia to Budapest last Sunday.

News from the same category