Yemane Tsegay

Who is Yemane Tsegay?

Yemane Adhane Tsegay is an Ethiopian long distance runner who specialises in the marathon. He won the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon with a personal best time of 2:04:48 hours. He has won marathons in Gyeongju, Macau and Taipei.

He began competing in international races in 2008 and finished third at the Casablanca Marathon that year, posting a time of 2:13:29. He had his first victory at the end of the year, winning the Macau Marathon in December. He opened 2009 with a second place finish at the Marrakech Marathon in January. Yemane made significant progress at the Paris International Marathon in April that year: although he finished in fourth place, he clocked a much improved personal best of 2:06:30.

He qualified to represent Ethiopia at the World Championships in Athletics and put in a strong debut performance at the 2009 World Championship Marathon race with a time of 2:08:42, just seven seconds behind bronze medallist Tsegay Kebede. Two months later he recorded his third consecutive sub-2:09 time, breaking the course record at the Gyeongju International Marathon in the process.

In the 2010 season, he started by setting a new half marathon best of 1:01:50 at the Zayed International Half Marathon. He stepped back up to the full distance for the Lake Biwa Marathon and won in cold conditions, beating Tomoyuki Sato and Hendrick Ramaala to the finish. He improved further at the Prague Half Marathon with a quick run of 1:01:37 for third place, in spite of poor conditions. He was the race favourite for the Prague Marathon in May, but late entrant Eliud Kiptanui won the race instead, leaving Tsegay as runner-up with a time of 2:07:11. He was dissatisfied with the run, saying that he classified 2:05 as a good time for his ability. He ran at the Berlin Marathon in September 2010 and finished in fourth place, running 2:07:52 in wet conditions.