Negussie joins Ethiopian marathoning greats

Boston, USAAs Ethiopia’s Elfenesh Alemu made her solitary way in the lead during part of the Boston marathon last Monday, even her stride was reminiscent of her three-time former champion compatriot Fatuma Roba’s. And when Catherine Ndereba slowly hauled Alemu in, it was in much the same way the Kenyan had ended Roba’s own bid for a fourth Boston win in 2000.

But Hailu Negussie, whose first name means “his power” and whose last name means “my king,” nevertheless ensured the Ethiopian anthem played at the end of the race, and his feat was witnessed and hailed by Ethiopian marathoning royalty.

Former Olympic champions Roba and Alemu’s husband Gezahegne Abera, and former holder of the men's World best time Belayneh Dinsamo were all on hand in Boston when Negussie became the first Ethiopian men’s winner there since Abebe Mekonnen in1989.

“I am very happy,” Abera, the 2003 London marathon champion who had flown to Boston after a London press engagement following his withdrawal from the 2005 race due to injury woes, said Monday night.

“It’s something that deserves to be regarded as a great accomplishment,” added Abera, who had missed out on victory in Boston by less than a second in 2000, before he went on to win at the Sydney Olympics and Edmonton World Championships. He had hoped to see his wife, who had led early along with Romanian Nuta Olaru on Monday, also wear the laurel wreath in Boston. “I was 100% sure she would win,” he said. “If she had been running with the Romanian un til the 35th kilometre, I think they could have pushed one another and she could have won, but she was alone and exposed.”

“I was so very disappointed Elfenesh didn’t win,” said Roba the following day. “I expected both Hailu and Elfenesh to win." She added, "When I was running here, I used to wish there would be more Ethiopians. Now there are several, and we won, and I’m very happy.”

Negussie joins the ranks of compatriots who have won major international marathons, following in the tradition of 1960 and 1964 Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila and 1968 champion Mamo Wolde, but the undulating Boston course had in fact defeated both of those legendary athletes in the past, a fact that was pointed out after Negussie’s win.

“I feel honoured just to have my name mentioned along with theirs,” he said.

From playing genna to running marathons

Growing up, Hailu Negussie, the son of farmers in Chancho, in the Shoa area of the central Ethiopian highlands, used to play genna, an Ethiopian sport something like field hockey, where teams use curved wooden sticks to hit a wooden ball into goals.

He also frequently ran to and from his school 7kms away, and he put all of that experience to good use, racing in school and placing third in the junior 8km race of the Northern Shoa zone’s cross country championships in 1997. Representing the zone, he placed third again at the Oromiya region cross country championships and bought his passage to the nationwide regional championships in Addis Ababa, where he won the junior race.

He began training seriously then, and won the 5000m and 10,000m at the Northern Shoa track championships that summer. He repeated the 10,000m victory in Addis Ababa at the nationwide regional track championships, beating Dagne Alemu and Mugher Cement Factory athletic club member Tesfaye Tola, who was to later earn marathon bronze at the Sydney Olympics.

“Many clubs wanted to recruit me then,” said Negussie, who joined Mugher, of which Abera is also a member. But a stomach ailment cost Negussie much of 1998. “And then I just couldn’t get really good results over 10,000 metres, so I tried the marathon,” he said.

He placed second behind Dube Jilo in the Abebe Bikila Marathon in Addis Ababa in 2000, and he has stayed with the distance ever since.

Paris World Championship hopes dashed by injury

Prior to Boston, Negussie had three marathon wins to his credit, all in Asia. He won the Hofu marathon in Japan in 2001 in 2:10:32, and again in 2002 in a personal best 2:08:16, placed second in Hamburg, Germany that year and won in Xiamen, China in March 2003. He was considered a hot new prospect when he was named to the Ethiopian squad for the Paris World Championships that summer. Abera’s form had been compromised by injuries, but the team was looking for a medal in the marathon World Cup as well as hoping for individual medals.

“I was working out on a bicycle in the gym one day and I pulled a muscle badly,” said Negussie. The serious right thigh injury forced Negussie to be left off the team. “He’s a strong, young fellow we had high hopes for,” said national coach Wolde Meskel Kostre at the time.

Despite frequently experiencing pain from that injury until late last year, the determined Negussie was fifth in Fukuoka in 2003 and in Boston last year. Troubled by both the injury and Athens’ heat, he dropped out of the Athens Olympic marathon. But now, although some after-effects of the injury remain, it has largely healed and he is in better shape than he has been at any time since it occurred.

Boston win signals a bright future

Last Monday, he emerged from a large pack which in the latter stages featured him as the lone Ethiopian challenged by five Kenyans, to score his first major victory. “Near the end, I could sense that they didn’t have the energy to follow me,” he said.

Asked later by reporters about the Ethiopian fans who regularly cheer on their compatriots in the race every year, Negussie’s singleminded dedication to his running and his serious nature came through. “I knew they were there,” he said of the supporters. “But all I could see was the race. I never looked up, so I didn’t see anyone.” As to his plans for celebrations when he returned to Ethiopia, he said, “I am very happy that I won, but I’m not planning anything special. I’m just going to continue training.”

Boston fans had other plans for him, though, as he and his fellow runners were invited to the Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant by the area's Ethiopian soccer club that night and honoured with plaques that were prepared for him and Alemu, and acknowledgement of the others.

Negussie smiled when he was introduced, but as sustained rhythmic clapping and a chant of “Hailu! Hailu!” ensued, his face broke into a wide grin, and he rose from his seat and took a bow.

“I was happy I won,” he said the following morning. “But when I felt their enthusiasm and their support, it made me even happier that I had pleased them so much.”

“Hailu is a very strong athlete,” Dinsamo, the 1988 Rotterdam marathon champion who set a World best there that stood for a decade, and was asked to present Negussie with his plaque Monday night, said on Tuesday. “I observed him when I was coaching the national team for three years. He’s naturally gifted, and in training, he was no less than Gezahegne, and he’s also a talented competitor.”

“He won using his strengths and a strategy, similar to Gezahegne’s, biding his time to escape from so many Kenyans when he was running alone without his friends,” added Dinsamo. “He offers great hope for future global championships.” 

Sabrina Yohannes for the IAAF