I was his translator after the cherry blossom race and he was upset that he didnt get a bonus for settimg a record. I remember asking him if he wanted to run anh marathon and he made a shreaking sound and shivered. He spoke more with his body language than words.
He is a very hilarious guy. He is training partners with tilahun regassa and he is managed by hussien makke. Coached by haji adilo.. Who is turning out to be a very successful guy.
His managment team tried there best to get him selected to the olympic 10,000 team. He had finished ahead of gebremariam.. In the 10000 in hengelo... But it turned out that the race was not the trial..and they kept on having trials. Lelisa was the alternate for the 10k
Well in the olympics gebre showed up injured and the team called up lelisa only to find out that he had prior commitments and was out of the country. The federation had totally hosed the selection process and they managed to lose track of the alternate.
What might have happened in that 10k... Lelisa had lost to tariku in hengelo.. But whi knows.. He may have had a chance at a medal.
He definately would have done better than an injured gebre. So this win is a huge achievement for him.