Team Ethiopia’s Road to Budapest as they eye better performance than in Oregon
Gudaf Tsegay of Team Ethiopia celebrates winning gold in the Women’s 5000m Final on day nine of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 23, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
ADDIS ABABA, August 16, 2023 - The eyes of the whole world will be on Budapest, Hungary from 19th to 27th of August to witness the best of athletics performances, where talented athletes flocking from over 200 nations to showcase to the world what they are capable of and make their countries proud at the global stage.
ETHIOPIA As one of the most successful nations in athletics, Ethiopia has a special connection to the biennial international athletics event participating in all of its previous 18 editions and ranked sixth globally and second from African continent with a total of 95 medals won (33 Gold, 34 Silver and 28 Bronze).
Ethiopian athletes will travel to the Hungarian capital with great expectations and as one of the favourites of the tournament to ignite, especially the track and road races. Meanwhile, let’s briefly look at how the road for Budapest looks like for team Ethiopia.
WHAT HAPPENED IN OREGON? A quick look back to what happened at the Oregon World Athletics Championships just 12 months ago puts a smile and a fond memory for every Ethiopian thanks to the greatest feat achieved by its glorious athletes.
Team Ethiopia recorded its best ever result at the World Championships history with four gold, four silver and two bronze medals. The East African nation finished just behind the hosts United States in the global medal table.
MEMORABLE TRIUMPHS Letesenbet Gidey’s nail-biting 10,000m victory followed by Tamirat Tolla and Gotytom Gebresilasse’s Marathon triumphs (both came with championships records) and Gudaf Tsegay’s 5000m winner gave Ethiopia its record number of Gold medals at a single championships.
Mossinet Geremew and Lemecha Girma defended their Silver medals from Doha in Men marathon and 3000msc respectively. Workuha Getachew surprised the whole nation with rare 3000msc silver while Gudaf Tsegay adds Silver in 1500m to her 5000m victory.
Dawit Seyoum and Mekdes Abebe finished 3rd to win a Bronze medals in 5000m and 3000msc women events respectively to make the 2022 World championships the most successful competitions in history for team Ethiopia.
IMPACT OF OREGON 22 The impact of Oregon championships victories transcends from a mere athletics triumph as it brought a much-needed joy and unity to the people of Ethiopia, while it was at a deadly civil war by the time. It’s from this memorable and significant championship, that team Ethiopia is building up for Budapest world championships.
PREPARATION FOR BUDAPEST Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) extended its calls to athletes and managers to start camping at the team hotel and to start training together for the championships at least six weeks before the tournament begins.
Most of the athletes who already met the entry standards by world athletics and selected by the federation followed suits and stay in the camp, while some middle-distance runners are were late to join the group and still training separately citing different reasons such as questioning the convenient of the team hotel.
As the championships dates are approaching and world athletics qualification periods are over, most of the athletes are doing their preparations with great conditions and team spirit at Ethiopian youth sport academy track in the capital, camping at Ararat Hotel, located on the outskirts of Northern Addis Ababa.
AMAZING TEAM SPIRIT Finding Ethiopian athletes at the camp in very good health, a winning form, good conditions and amazing team spirit is some of the positives on team Ethiopia’s preparation to build the momentum going in to the championships.
EXPECTATIONS FOR BUDAPEST Despite a mountain of challenges faced, considering the highs and lows of team Ethiopia’s preparation for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the expectations from the athletes, coaches and management of the federation are to register better results than of the previous ones.
The 5000m Women Gold medallist at Oregon 22, Gudaf Tsegay, said, “We are getting ourselves prepared for the world championships. This is a place where we can display all the effort we put into our work over the year. This is the world championships, where the best athletes from all over the world come and try to show what they are capable of. Glory be to God, so far, my preparations are going on very well.
IN A BETTER CONDITION "I am in a better condition than last year. I have registered my Personal Best in 5000m (14:12.19) & in 10,000m (29:29.73) Most importantly I am in good health and form. Regarding results we can’t predict before races as it depends on multiple factors including weather, competitors and any kind of emergencies. However, together with my teammates, we are working exceptionally hard. With God's help, we will strive to achieve positive outcomes.”
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