Tariku Jufar (born 18 July 1984) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. He won the 2011 Beirut Marathon and has had top-three finishes in Istanbul, Mumbai, Los Angeles and Hamburg. His personal best for the distance is 2:08:10 hours (set in 2008). In addition to marathon running, he also represented his country at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2003 and 2007.
His rise as a professional athlete began at the 2003 Ethiopian half marathon championships, where he was runner-up behind Dereje Adere.[1] As a result he was chosen for the Ethiopian team at the 2003 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, where he came 17th.[2] That year he was also third at the Paderborn Easter Run and second at the Reims Half Marathon.[3]
He did not build upon this success until 2006, when he returned to major half marathon running with a runner-up finish at the Nice Half Marathon and a fifth place at the Delhi Half Marathon.[4][5] His debut over the marathon distance came in January 2007 and he transitioned well, taking third place at the Mumbai Marathon in a time of 2:12:49 hours.[6] An appearance at the Paris Marathon followed, but he could only manage 11th at the higher profile race. He represented Ethiopia in the half marathon at the 2007 All-Africa Games, coming eighth, and he ran a personal best of 61:28 minutes for 18th place at the 2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships.[2] His final outing of the year came at the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon and his third place finish in 2:11:05 hours was the beginning of a marathon-focused period of his career.[7]
Tariku Jufar led for the early stages of the Mumbai Marathon in January 2008 and held on to take second place behind Kenya's John Kelai.[8] A career best time of 2:08:10 hours came at the Hamburg Marathon three months later (where he was third)[9] The Toronto Waterfront Marathon was promoted as a rematch between him and Kelai, but both had sub-standard races – the Ethiopian was 13th and his time of 2:18:47 hours was by far the slowest of his professional career.[10] His performance at December's Singapore Marathon was even slower, as he came tenth in 2:19:20 hours.[11]
His sole marathon of 2009, the Los Angeles Marathon, saw him return to form and he completed the distance in 2:09:32 hours (his second sub-2:10 hour run) to take the runner-up spot behind Wesley Korir.[12] Tariku had mixed results in the 2010 season: he returned to Los Angeles and came seventh in a time of 2:11:49 hours, but was some six minutes slower at the Florence Marathon, where he came fifth.[11] The 2011 Mumbai Marathon was tightly contested and although Tariku was fourteen seconds behind the winner Girma Assefa, this left him in fourth place.[13] His second run of the year came in Istanbul and a late-stage duel against Vincent Kiplagat resulted in a runner-up finish for the Ethiopian.[14] Just over a month later, he took to the course at the Beirut Marathon and he ran a course record time of 2:11:14 hours, seeing off a challenge from Sammy Malakwen.[15]