Zersenay Tadesse

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Zersenay Tadesse (born February 9, 1982 in Adi Bana) is an Eritrean long distance track, and road running athlete.

[edit] History

Olympic medal record
Men's Athletics
Bronze	Athens 2004	10,000 metres

He became the first person in Eritrean sporting history to win an Olympic medal. Zersenay took the bronze in the 10,000 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece behind Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele, and Sileshi Sihine. ^[1]

In 2005 he won the Great North Run in Newcastle, with a record breaking time.

In April 2006 he finished fourth in the long race at the World Cross Country Championships, winning a silver medal in the team competition. On 2006-09-10 in Rotterdam he finished in 1st place in a half marathon, and in October 2006 he won the gold medal at the 2006 IAAF World Road Running Championships.

On 31 December 2006 he ran a new World Record over 10 kilometres road race in the San Silvestre Vallence race in Madrid. In a heavy battle between him and Eliud Kipchoge he finished in 26.54 minutes, breaking Haile Gebrselassie's record of 27.02 minutes. Tadesse did however not win the race, he and Kipchoge were awarded the same time with Kipchoge as the winner of the race.

On 24 March 2007 he won the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya, as five time world cross country champion Kenenisa Bekele did not finish the race.^[2]

[edit] See Also

• IAAF profile for Zersenay Tadesse

[edit] References

1. ^ 2004 Athens Olympics: YouTube video 10000m final
2. ^ Ramsak, Bob. "Tadesse takes upset victory as Bekele registers a ‘DNF’ - Mombasa 2007", IAAF, 24 March 2007. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.