ADDIS ABABA (Sudan Tribune) – Sudanese defence minister, Abdel-Rahim Hussein met on Thursday with the Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi to discuss a number of bilateral and regional issues.
According to the official SUNA, the talks focused on bilateral cooperation in security issue. The talks dealt with the development of border trade and ways to revitalize the security military and economic bilateral cooperation.
Abdel Rahim told reporter in Khartoum that the meeting covered several important issues, and briefed Zenawi on the latest developments on the Sudanese arena, especially the peace process in Darfur region in addition to the activities carried out by the team supervisor of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan.
He also discussed the indictment of the Sudanese president by the International criminal Court prosecutor who charged Omer al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and was crimes.
Meles has pledged to participate with the biggest military contingent, 5000 troops, in the peacekeeping operation in Darfur. The advance batch is expected over the weekend in El-Fasher.
Born 21 March 1982, Chefe, near Bekoji (home of Derartu Tulu and Kenenisa Bekele), Arsi, Ethiopia.
Lives in Addis Ababa
Manager: Mark Wetmore
Coach: Dr. Woldemeskel Kostre Club: Oromiya Prisons
Third of six children in a running family, including younger sisters Tirunesh and Genzebe. Tirunesh is reigning 10,000m World Champion, 5000m indoor and outdoor World record holder, and 5000m Olympic bronze medallist. Genzebe is the 2008 World Cross Country junior champion. Their cousin Derartu Tulu is a two-time Olympic 10,000m champion. Another athletic cousin, Bekelu Dibaba, also inspired Ejegayehou and Tirunesh, and they encourage younger brother Dejene (b. 1989), who shows promise.
As a 10-year old in Bekoji, Ejegayehou watched on TV as her cousin Derartu became the first Black African woman to win Olympic gold. But she continued to concentrate on her studies at the Bekoji elementary school (the same school attended by Derartu) until early in 1998, when a physical education teacher spotted her in one of his classes and urged her to run in the inter-school championships. Though she had hardly trained, she won easily and was selected for the Arsi Province team for the 1998 Oromiya Regional Championships. There she won the 8km junior race and caught the eye of selectors from the Oromiya Prisons Sports Club. She joined the club in May 1998.
By August 1999, she had moved to Addis Ababa to live with cousin Bekelu and continue her schooling, which she had stopped after sixth year, but running quickly took over. Less than a year after moving to Addis, she placed 4th at 10,000m in the Ethiopian Championships and attracted the interest of manager Wetmore. The following year, 2001, she ran cross country in Spain and Portugal and road races in North America, seldom finishing out of the top 5, and she represented Ethiopia at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane (6th at 10,000 in 32:24.20).
2002 saw more North American road races with few distinguished results, but a bronze at 5000m (15:56.02) in the African Championships in Tunisia. In 2003 her running moved up a level. She earned a spot on the Ethiopian World Cross team and finished 9th at 4 km in Lausanne. She then clocked an impressive 31:02.72 in the Palo Alto GP for 2nd behind Werknesh Kidane and took 3rdin the Ethiopian Championships 10,000m, earning another World Championships berth. In Paris, however, her PB 31:01.07 was only good for 9th in the greatest women’s 10,000m ever run (finishers 2 through 16 earned best-ever times for place), and family honors went to little sister Tirunesh, who sprinted to gold in the 5000m.
Ejegayehou assuaged her disappointment in the autumn with three gold medals in quick succession: first at the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, where she won the 10,000m (32:34.54), beating teammate Eyerusalem Kuma; next at the 1st Afro Asian Games in India, where she also won the 10,000m (33:01.12), and then in Japan where she was part of Ethiopia’s winning team in the Chiba Ekiden road relay. She and her sister ended the year with a family 1-2 in the Great Ethiopian Run, Tirunesh crossing the line two seconds in front.
Ejegayehou began her 2004 cross country season with two wins in Spain and was named to both the short- and long-course teams for the World Cross in Bussels. She came away with a 2nd in the long race on the first day behind Australia’s Benita Johnson and an exhausted 10th in the short race the second day. Her track season was focused on Athens, but along the way she lowered her PBs at 5000 and 10,000m to such impressive marks (14:32.74 and 30:43.39) that she was initially selected for both events (though as a reserve in the 10,000m).
As it turned out, when Berhane Adere was dropped from the squad shortly before the Games, Ejegayehou was drafted into the 10,000m and Meseret Defar took her place in the 5000m. The new lineup worked well for Ethiopia as Meseret won gold in the 5000m (Tirunesh taking bronze), while Ejegayehou recorded a new PB (30:24.98) for silver in the 10,000m. She was disappointed not to have won, having shared the lead with her Ethiopian teammates Werknesh and Derartu over the last several laps, but she admits she was caught unawares by the finishing burst of gold medallist Xing Huina of China.
Ejegayehou’ closed out 2004 with a 3rd over 5000m at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco and a share of yet another team title in the Chiba Ekiden.
Her form in 2005 was less than dazzling. In mid-January, she could do no better than 7th in the Edinburgh International cross country, and two weeks later she trailed in 25 seconds behind Tirunesh’s world indoor 5000m record in Boston. She took 3rd in the 4 km at the Ethiopian World Cross trials but only managed 14th at the St. Etienne/St. Galmier World Cross.
Ejegayehu’s best performances over the next few seasons came behind her sister Tirunesh. The sisters ran a 10,000m in Sollentuna, Sweden in June 2005 that turned out to be critical. It convinced Tirunesh, who ran a World leading 30:15.67 for her debut over the distance to contest it at the Helsinki Worlds, and gave Ejegayehou what remains her personal best to this day, 30:18.39 for 2nd place. Tirunesh went on win both events in Helsinki while, overshadowed by that historic accomplishment, but quite a feat in itself, was Ejegayehu’s haul of two bronzes, as part of a clean medal sweep by Ethiopia.
In several top three finishes behind Tirunesh in 2006, she ran a 3000m personal best 8:35.94 in London and season bests of 14:33.52 for 5000m at the Oslo GL and 8:49.59 for 3000m indoors in Birmingham. She qualified for the 2007 World Championships with a 10,000m win in Barakaldo, Spain, but in Osaka, Tirunesh was the only Ethiopian to medal and Ejegayehu finished seventh.
She appears to be back in top form in 2008, starting the year with a 3000m indoor PB of 8:36.59 in Boston in January, and kicking off the outdoor season as part of the Ethiopian 10,000m podium sweep at the African Championships in Addis Ababa before running 31:04.05 in Ostrava in June, placing second behind Tirunesh each time. Tirunesh’s world record 5000m run in Oslo on 6 June gave Ejegayehu a 14:36.78 2008 best in 3rd behind Kenyan Lucy Wangui Kabuu.
In Beijing, Kabuu and her compatriots will look to challenge the Dibaba sisters and Mestawet Tufa, who will work as a team hoping for one or both of the minor medals behind the overwhelming favourite Tirunesh.
2008 2nd African Championships, 10,000m
2005 3rd World Championships in Athletics, 5,000m
2005 3rd World Championships in Athletics, 10,000m
2004 2nd Olympic Games, 10,000m
2004 2nd World Cross Country Championships, 8K
2003 1st All-Africa Games, 10,000m
2002 3rd African Championships, 10,000m
A note on Ethiopian names: Ethiopians are customarily referred to by first name or first and second name together, the second name being the father’s first name.
(UN News Center) — Troops from Ethiopia will shortly join the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID), bringing with them their engineering skills to be used in the areas of water installation and the erection of tents and electric power lines.
The advance party of the first Ethiopian Infantry Battalion [correction: it is a private mercenary army of the Meles crime family] to join UNAMID – which seeks to quell the deadly fighting and humanitarian suffering that has raged in the Sudanese region since 2003 – is scheduled to arrive in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and the headquarters of the mission, over the weekend.
UNAMID said the contingent will be deployed in Kulbus and Silea, both located in West Darfur.
An estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur, an arid and impoverished region on Sudan’s western flank, since 2003, either through direct combat or disease, malnutrition and reduced life expectancy, while another 2.7 million people have been forced to flee from their homes.
In a related development, UNAMID’s Nyala office has received reports that following talks between Deputy Special Representative Henry Anyidoho and South Darfur Governor Ali Mahmoud, the issue of restricting fuel allocations to the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) is being resolved.
Oxfam, a non-governmental organization, has “informed us that its fuel allocation was approved as requested, and they were allocated sufficient fuel to run their water pumps in Kalma for a week,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
Other aid agencies have also expressed their satisfaction with the current Government fuel allocations, he said.
Men’s Marathon
The Schedule: Sunday, Aug 24 (live on NBC, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EDT)
The Americans: Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Brian Sell
The Contenders: Sammy Wanjiru (KEN), Martin Lel (KEN), Robert Cheruyiot (KEN), Mubarak Shami (QAT), Abderrahim Goumri (MAR), Jaouad Gharib (MAR), Tsegaye Kebede (ETH), Tsuyoshi Ogata (JPN)
The Medal Picks: T&FN – Wanjiru, Lel, Goumri; SI – Lel, Goumri, Kebede
The Story: If you look at the World Marathon Majors leader board, you would expect the race to come down to Lel, Cheruyiot and Goumri, or new half-marathon World Record holder Wanjiru. But that’s predicting the future based solely on what has happened in the past, and that’s an iffy proposition for the marathon.
First off, athletes compete so rarely that we just don’t have enough information to tell who will be at their best and who will not. This is even more true in Olympic marathons, where athletes may have spent their whole lives preparing for this one single race in preference over all others. So you are interested in an athlete who is ascendant rather than dominant…someone like, say, Ryan Hall. Or someone else we’re much less aware of.
Tsegaye Kebede answers that call. He won his first marathon, in course record time in Addis Ababa (2:15), then ran 2:08 and 2:06, plus a sub-60:00 half and a couple of 10k road wins, all in the last 13 months.
But the other confounding factor in this race will be the heat and humidity. The always-well-peaked Japanese are no strangers to these conditions. The U.S. runners have their own not-so-secret weapon they used to great advantage in Athens.
Predictions? I’m not making any – it’s just too close to call and will be one heck of a race. Just sit back, watch, and enjoy it.
Note: Athletes’ rankings refer to TheFinalSprint.com’s World Points Standings, and medal picks come to us from Track & Field News and Sports Illustrated, respectively.
LOWER OMO VALLEY, Ethiopia – “Remember, take only what you need,” says Johnny, our driver from Addis Ababa whose real name is Yohanes Tsegaye.
As soon as I step out of the Toyota Land Cruiser, parked in the shade of flat-topped acacia, all hell breaks lose. A crowd of Mursi – a tribe best known for the giant lip plates worn by its women – comes
The Mursi are in a frenzy, not because they want to welcome me to their homes. Instead, they are after lucrative photo fees demanded of picture-taking tourists who have trekked to the village of Hail Wuha, on the edge of an escarpment in one of the most isolated and inaccessible regions of Africa.
“You! You! You!” they yell at me. I am surrounded by Mursi who appear as a blur of floppy lip plates, painted faces, naked breasts and animal skins.
They tug at my clothing, reminding me that this is not an out-of-body experience. Some of the women have large plates stretching their lips to fantastic proportions, and those without plates wear headdresses with dangling cattle horns.
Thanks to its location in Ethiopia’s southern lowlands near the borders of Sudan and Kenya, the Lower Omo Valley, named after the majestic Omo River running through it, has perhaps Africa’s highest concentration of strangely beautiful microcultures, including Bume, Karo and Konso and Hamar.
When I first saw Hamar women at a market in Turmi, I was struck by their fine features, milk-chocolate skin and tight ringlet hairdos covered in a shiny mixture of cow’s butter and ochre. The result is stunning, especially in combination with cowry-shell necklaces and dazzling bead sashes.
Few outsiders venture this far into the Ethiopian bush because you can’t do it alone. I went with Toronto-based Africa Adventure and Study Tours Inc., which hired experienced guides and a couple of four-wheel drives to cover this rugged, red-soil terrain of acacia and scrub forest.
Touring the Lower Omo is certainly for the adventurous, but those who make the effort are rewarded with beautiful scenery and tribal encounters that at times make you feel as if you have returned to the dawn of human existence.
Back at the village of Hail Wuha, the Mursi refuse to accept less than 2 birr per photo, per person – about a dollar for a group shot of three – which strikes me as unusually regulated. Are they working with talent agents?
The highlands
It’s easy to be mesmerized by Ethiopia’s wild and exotic south, but the country’s northern highlands also have much to offer. Instead of primitive cultures and remote national parks inhabited by colonies of baboons and colobus monkeys, Ethiopia’s highland plateau is the center of an ancient civilization.
Over two millennia, its kings and emperors created palaces, monasteries and giant stelae that impress visitors to this day. Many of the sites can be found in and around Lake Tana, Gonder and Axum.
The top attraction in Ethiopia’s north, however, is the village of Lalibela, whose monolithic churches carved from rose-colored volcanic tuff in the late 12th century are little known in the outside world. They rival the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan and the temple of Karnak in Egypt with one important difference: You don’t have to fight crowds.
The biggest of these churches, Bet Medhane Alem, or Saviour of the World, is roughly one-third the size of the Parthenon. Inside, I find myself alone with a priest clutching an 800-year-old processional cross. This national treasure, believed to have healing powers, once belonged to King Lalibela, who is credited with building the 11 spectacular churches of this mountainside village.
The priest shows me biblical texts written on goat-skin parchment. I’m awestruck by the detail and color of the illuminated pages. There are images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and martyred saints as old as the Lalibela Cross. I realize that Bet Medhane Alem is a living museum where visitors come into direct contact with Ethiopia’s history. Anywhere else in the world, these ancient relics would be strictly off limits to the public.
No one knows why Lalibela, a kind of city of God in the middle of the African wilderness, was built, but there are theories. According to one, King Lalibela embarked on his construction project after visiting Jerusalem, where he was so impressed by what he saw that he vowed to build a holy city in his native Africa.
Like Jerusalem, Lalibela is rocky and arid, with groves of gnarled olive trees in an otherwise barren landscape. I felt I was walking in the pages of the New Testament.
For all of Lalibela’s treasures and architectural grandeur, I was most struck by the lichen-spotted Bet Gyorgius, or Church of St. George. It is carved in the shape of a Greek cross downward into a volcanic slope, creating the illusion of having sunk into the ground under its own weight.
It also has what may be the finest exterior detailing of any church in Lalibela, and a striking courtyard dug around the outer walls.
A couple of days later, I am similarly impressed by the mountain-top Debre Damo monastery, home to Ethiopia’s oldest church, established by Syrian missionaries in the fifth century.
It’s less the church, however, and more the 80-foot climb up an ox-hide cord dangling from the monastery’s eagle-nest entrance that captures my interest.
Our guide climbs the mountain wall effortlessly. For me it’s harder, partly because I choose to climb in bare feet. By the time I reach the timber and stone gate, I’m winded. “For you, it was like 200 feet,” our laughing guide says.
Maybe, but the trip down will be easier.
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Erik Heinrich is a freelance writer in Canada.
(takethemagicstep.com) — Swimming and gymnastics are great, of course, but for us, the “real” Olympics get underway on Friday, with the first track and field events. In the day’s first final, the women’s 10,000m, Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba will try to win the first of two golds. (She will likely also run the 5,000m, an event in which she’s the world record holder.)
On the men’s side, two runners will also be seeking double gold—Kenenisa Bekele will run the 10,000m and 5,000m, and Bernard Lagat will try to duplicate the 1500m/5,000m double he won at last year’s World Championships. Their match-up at 5,000m should be an amazing race to watch.
Today, we’ll look at the men’s distance races. Check back tomorrow for a preview of the women’s events.
800m
Final: August 23
Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, just 19 years old, convincingly won the world indoor title in March, and his junior world record of 1:42.69 is the fastest time in the world this year. Still, he’ll hardly have an easy time of it. Yuri Borzakovskiy (Russia) and Youssef Saad Kamal (Bahrain) have run 1:42.79 this year. Borzakovskiy is the defending champion; Kamal is a Kenyan native and the son of two-time 800m world champion Billy Konchellah.
1500m
Final: August 19
The 1500m is a relatively open race. Last year’s world champion Bernard Lagat (USA) has a good shot at the gold, if he can reach his form of the past year. The fastest in the field this year is the Kenyan Augustine Choge (3:31.57). The fastest man in the world this year, Daniel Komen (3:31.49) failed to qualify for the Kenyan team.
3,000m Steeplechase
Final: August 18
With world record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qatar) out with injury, yet another Kenyan medal sweep seems likely. Richard Matelong, defending champion Ezekiel Kemboi and Brimin Kipruto are supposedly the Kenyan squad, but this year’s world’s best Paul Koech (8:00.57), nominated as reserve, might start for one of them. With Tareq Taher (Bahrain), another strong Kenyan native is in the race.
5,000m
Final: August 23
The fastest runner of the year will also not be in the 5,000m; Moses Masai (Kenya/12:50.55) will run the 10,000m instead. If he competes, Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) might be the favorite. But, his start is not as certain as it is over 10,000m. Defending world champion Bernard Lagat as well as possibly Kenenisa’s brother, Tariku, and Moses Kipsiro (Uganda) should be the elder Bekele’s main challengers. In a slow, tactical race, look for the Kenyan Edwin Soi, who has a tremendous finishing kick.
10,000 m
Final: August 17
The big favorite is, of course, defending champion Kenenisa Bekele. Under normal circumstances, the Ethiopian is hard to be beat. His compatriot Sileshi Sihine placed second at the last two World Championships as well as the 2004 Olympics, and seems to be again the best bet for the silver medal. The question is to what extent the three Kenyans—Moses Masai, Martin Mathathi and Micah Kogo—as well as Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) can keep up. In their best form they have a chance. It will prove difficult for Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) to win a medal.
