Is Solomon Haile really 20 years old?

"I said there are 13 months in the Coptic calendar you dumbass.

You're the one who's hating. You know why? You assume foreigners are all a bunch of clueless idiots who can't figure out what year it is in the Western calendar or how old they are. Here's a news flash for you: I've worked in Ethiopia and travelled there many times. You'd be surprised how much they know and understand about the world, not to mention the ones who have immediate family members living in the U.S.! I don't have anything against Solomon Haile. He may be a great guy. But there are serious holes in his story. Being very familiar with Ethiopia, when I read Naomi's Coptic calendar excuse in the Washington Post I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. You got to hand it to those Montgomery County "investigators", they are one sharp bunch."

you idiot i am from ethiopia i was born here but my parents were born there, i have been there over a handful of times so im pretty sure i know what i'm talking about, i would be calling myself and my family members clueless if i were assuming that,the gregorian calendar is confusing, the calendar still confuses me to this day if, his sister claims to have made an honest mistake then respect that because there is nothing you can do, his age has been investigated and they found no proof that he is 20 or older, so get over it and stop hating on the boy let him run and have the shot any other high schooler has.

stillmatic460 wrote:

you idiot i am from ethiopia i was born here but my parents were born there, i have been there over a handful of times so im pretty sure i know what i'm talking about, i would be calling myself and my family members clueless if i were assuming that,the gregorian calendar is confusing, the calendar still confuses me to this day if, his sister claims to have made an honest mistake then respect that because there is nothing you can do, his age has been investigated and they found no proof that he is 20 or older, so get over it and stop hating on the boy let him run and have the shot any other high schooler has.

Yeah, sure. Your post alone raises issues: "...i am from ethiopia i was born here but my parents were born there.."

So you were born and raised in the U.S. and went to U.S. schools and have lived here for probably 14 years or more and the Western calendar confuses you??? It's the ONLY calendar you've been using to live your daily life! How can it confuse you?

I don't need to accept jack sh*t. The story does not add up. There are only two possibilities: he's 18 and knowingly pretended to be 20, or he's 20 or older and is pretending to be 18.

The investigation was either done incompetently or was a whitewash.

you idiot i am from ethiopia i was born here but my parents were born there, (QUOTE)

Stillmatic460, you are NOT from Ethiopia....you are American (born & raised)....stop pretending to be something you are not. You should not disrespect who, and what, you are.....AMERICAN!!!!!!Shame on you!

I highly doubt you will emigrate there....Ethiopia.

By the way, has anyone seen the Coptic calendar birth date Solomon allegedly gave Naomi?

Great idea! Maybe someone can catch him off guard and then do the calculations?

silly old fossil wrote:

you idiot i am from ethiopia i was born here but my parents were born there, (QUOTE)

Stillmatic460, you are NOT from Ethiopia....you are American (born & raised)....stop pretending to be something you are not. You should not disrespect who, and what, you are.....AMERICAN!!!!!!Shame on you!

I highly doubt you will emigrate there....Ethiopia.

I also have to call BS on this whole rant - you seem to have mentioned in your first post that the Coptic calendar has more than 12 months, but you weren't quite sure how many. Then you post this last gem by saying you are from ethiopia, but born here. And then you say Gregorian calendar confuses you. So, all we can gather from this is you are American (not Ethiopian) with Ethiopian decent, and you don't know how to read a calendar - period. Good work. You story has almost as many holes as Haile's. Maybe you should change your handle to "Haile", that way we can recognize you...

PASSPORT PLEASE, PASSPORT PLEASE, PASSPORT PLEASE,

No more Calendar's, no more school records, pages from his bible, and giving back his race winnings. Just provide a PASSPORT. Show everyone your age !!!!!!! ARE YOU SCARED !! BE A MAN. Prove it. SHUT all of us UP!!!

....>>>> FACE IT, THIS GUY IS A PRO....

Solomon Haile, or Solomon Semunguse raced serveral 1/2 marathons in 2007 and 10k events, and WON!!!.. sounds like a 17yr old High School runner - right-, sorry not buying it. This is not all of his races, but THIS schedule is a GRUELING list of 1/2 Marathons and 10ks. NO 17yr old could take this schedule on. Haile was looking to be HIRED / SIGNED to a BETTER-contract. HE FOUND one, SHERWOOD HIGH SCHOOL. NICE Gig.

1/28/2007 KhonKaen ½ Marathon, KhonKaen,Thailand

finished 1st 1:08:08 - listed as age 20

( ####www.championchip-thailand.com/marathon-results/KhonKaen/Result_KK2107.php?order=Name&page=5 #####)

Here is a nice picture of his finish, 1/2 way down the page (####www.khonkaenmarathon.com/en/RaceResults.asp ####).

9/16/07 Wachau ½ marathon Wachau, Austria

finished 10th 1:08:41 listed as age 20, ran for PRO running club "Geta Zeru" of Ethiopia, they probably funded the trip.

( ####www.pentek-timing.at/results/show_results_db.php?veranstnr=10493&racenr=4 ####)

10/13/07 14th annual United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon, HARTFORD, Conn., 1/2 Marathon

Finished 2nd with 1:07:17 listed as age 20

( ####www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ct/Oct13_14thAn_set7.shtml ####)

10/21/2007 8K Fairfax VA

Finished 3rd 24:33 listed as age 20, damm good 7 days after a 1/2Marathon

( ####www.runwashington.com/news/oct07starkidsrpt.html ####)

11/11/2007 2nd Annual OBX 1/2 Marathon Outer Banks, NC

finished 1st 1:09:29.55..nice time

( ####www.obxmarathon.com/Top_Nav/results/2007_Results.html ####)

12/9/2007 Jingle all the way 10k West Potomac Park - DC.

finished 1st 31:30 listed as age 20

( ####www.athlinks.com/results/40897/59597/33730945/Jingle-All-The-Way-10K-2007.aspx ####)

NICE article on VA runners web site. ( ####www.runwashington.com/news/dec07jaw10krpt.html ####)

Semunguse, in the area from Ethiopia for three months, sprinted away from Michael Wardian (33) in the final half mile to earn his victory. Wardian finished second,

13 seconds back. Ryan Mammen (31) ran 32:29 for third.

Semunguse (in photo) is clearly talented but admitted he is not considered particularly fast in Ethiopia, where winning usually indicates Olympic-caliber speed. But he has been racing often while abroad, hoping to attract the attention of a manager, he said, while staying with his sister in McLean.

Feb. 2008

HAILE goes to a US High School ...YEEEEE HAW!!! the rest is well noted. The Sherwood AD and XC/Track Coach should be ASHAMED!!!

PS>>>>>> how it this guy staying in USA, I thought visitors had to returned home. SO is he even LEGAL? yikes. Call HOMELAND.

I had to get a passport to go to Mexico last yr. $60.00 and a lot of paperwork and time.

hold on - they were sophisticated enough in western ways to register him using active.com (which clearly means they are at least somewhat familiar with the western world) but they were not advanced enough to figure out the year he was born (they had the computer with an internet obviously right in front of them)that is a little suspect

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I find it interesting and I've seen the articles referenced. The only question seems to be, is he turning 19 in January, 2009, or is he older than that? How do we know his passport hasn't come under scrutiny already? If the school system relied on a birth certificate, and then obtained supporting school records as reported on Dyestat, why wouldn't we expect that the same birth certificate was used to obtain his passport? Is the theory that he produced a fake Ethiopian birth certificate after he got here, and fake school records that lined up with it? Pretty elaborate scam. Just asking.

yes, that's about right: when he traveled around the world with his passport, he wasn't planning on staying in the us and running as a highschooler, so there was no reason to have a passport with a 1990 DOB. Also, there's a difference between having a fake passport and showing it to US embassy and immigration officials and showing a birth certificate to a school registrar who has no idea what it's supposed to look like. Nor do we know what the 'school records' look like. (He declined to show the documentation to the Washington Post reporter.) We also know that the school system hasn't seen his passport. We don't even know who has seen his documents. The normal procedure is that the school checks the documents and passes on a list of eligible athletes to the main county athletic office.

This eventually went way beyond the "normal procedure" though. The school system worked through the Ethiopian embassy in D.C. to verify records as part of the investigation that the age controversy initiated. It certainly wasn't as simple as a school registrar attempting to interpret an Ethiopian birth certificate and school records. It seems illogical if they worked with the embassy, and the intent was to verify age, that the passport wouldn't be considered. I guess it's possible though. When you say "We also know the school system hasn't seen his passport", how do we know this?

Wait how do you know they went through the embassy?

I spoke to the AD at a meet. He'd personally been to the embassy twice at the point we talked.

When you say "We also know the school system hasn't seen his passport", how do we know this?

Answer: 1. I talked to the assistant director (or whatever her title is) in the mcps office of athletic affairs; that was before the hearing 2. The articles on dyestat and the Post only refer to the birth certificate and the school documents; in fact, my understanding is that the mcps hearing only focused on the amateur status, so the age issue never came up.

MCPS actually cleared him twice, once on age and once on amateur status. From Dyestat:

"Early last week, Beattie joined Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) Executive Director Ned Sparks in confirming that questions about Haile’s age had been laid to rest as far as the state of Maryland and the Montgomery County Public Schools were concerned. By the end of the week, Beattie claimed on behalf of both entities that the same could be said of uncertainties regarding Haile’s amateur status.

“The state [of Maryland] and Montgomery County Schools are quite confident of his eligibility, age- and amateur status-wise,” Beattie said."

AreYou Sure wrote:

I spoke to the AD at a meet. He'd personally been to the embassy twice at the point we talked.

Total BS.

good question wrote:

yes, that's about right: when he traveled around the world with his passport, he wasn't planning on staying in the us and running as a highschooler, so there was no reason to have a passport with a 1990 DOB.

False, the family had every intention of bringing him over for an education and opportunities after their mother passed away. There are a lot of other "facts" on here that need to be corrected, but there aren't enough hours in the day.

We also know that the school system hasn't seen his passport. We don't even know who has seen his documents.

We don't know, we don't know, we don't know.

We don't know because we don't matter. You don't matter. If you were a player in this situation, you would know. It's rude and self righteous to expect the kid to post his documentation on the internet to satisfy your curiosity. Rulings have been made, folks. Move on.

From Dyestat article:

"“We’re satisfied of his age,” Dr. William Beattie, director of athletics for Montgomery County public schools, said by phone this week. While he stopped short of allowing there had been any official investigation, he did confirm, “We have an official birth certificate. It’s in sync with school records we’ve elicited from Ethiopia…I understand he’s a gifted runner, so we did go back over and review our records, and what’s there is correct.”

Edward “Ned” Sparks, Executive Director of the state-wide MPSSAA, reiterated the county findings in a separate phone call.

“This school system is certainly well-equipped to handle this situation,” he said. “We feel they carried out due diligence…the birth certificate he presented translates to a birth date of the twenty-third of January, 1990. It coincides with school records from Ethiopia. Short of the State Department or the FBI getting involved, we’re going to accept that.”

BIRTH CERTFICATE AND SCHOOL RECORDS --- that's it.