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The Life of a Teenage World Championship Gold Medal Marathoner - IAAFPublished by
Teen TrailblazerPublished by IAAF on September 21, 2015 Ghirmay Ghebreslassie caused one of the bigger upsets in Beijing last month for two reasons: 1) His marathon win at the World Championships delivered gold to Eritrea for the first time in the championships' history; 2) At 19-years-old, he became the first ever teen to win the event. We find out about his journey to the summit of a mountain called Road Running. Not too cool for schoolBorn in the rural village of Kisadeka – around 115km south of the Eritrean capital city of Asmara – Ghebreslassie first started to run competitively in 2009. Impressed with his style when running around with classmates, a wily PE teacher encouraged the youngster to give athletics a crack. His parents feared sport might negatively impact on his outstanding academic life, but his astute teacher saw no such conflict. “He told me that Zersenay Tadese [Eritrea's five-time world half-marathon champion and 2007 world cross country champion] was also a great student. That's what motivated me to see what I could do,” Ghebreslassie explains. Read the full article at: spikes.iaaf.org
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