Maryam Yusuf Jamal (Brn): What is going on with this young athlete?

That is very interesting that she such a wide range and world class in all three events. Why do you think no other woman have broken the barriers in those events and how do you think she did in a month span?

It probably the same reason that very few man have done the same in the 800m sub 1:45, 1500m sub 3:30, and 5000m sub 13 minutes. The 800m and 5000m are very different in the manner in which you have to train; however, the milers who can do both events usually choose to only dabble in 800 or move up to the 5000m late in their careers. The FEW athletes capable of doing it either specialize in two of the events and seldomly run the third.

The feat of breaking all TWO (2) of those barriers is difficult for most elite athletes and to do all three is amazing. How did Maryam do it in 17 days, I have no idea except HOPE she is extremely talented! The interesting things is when Ethiopians defect they aren't welcomed back (camps, training, & racing in country they left) as warmly by other Ethiopian athletes like some of the Kenyans.

Vipam - In early 2002, I went Switzerland to study in Bern for a semester. I competed in the Swiss Half Marathon Championships in March. It was very competitive and myself and another young guy ended up pacing a young Ethipian girl named Zenebach Tola. See was trying to set the course record and we pushed her to a 1:13-low finish. The course was mismarked and she missed the record by a few seconds.

She was very young at the time and I though she was obviously a huge talent. I continued to see her at other road races and then followed her career and progress for a couple of years. At the time, I was under the impression she was a Swiss Resident trying to gain citizenship. This was the case with another young Ethipion man who won a few marathons in Switzerland then ran 2:10 or so at the Paris Marathon two years ago.

I realized that Zenebach never really got the chance to make the Ethiopian national team despite her amazing talent, so Switzerland was a great opportunity at the time. She raced on the road frequently, dominated the women's field and often giving the men a run for their money. I am glad to see that she has "made it" and is running so well. However, it has been a few years of tough training and running, she has not improved unexepectedly overnight I assure you! It takes a strong mentality and ambition to succeed in road racing, to fight it out for a few hundred dollars every week. I expect this drive can lead to the same type of success on the track. At least I hope that she has not relied on anything besides hard work!

Interestingly enough, Switzerland is were I just started getting into competitive running and I still have the newspaper clippings from the big races like GP Bern, Kerzerslauf, 20km Lausanne, etc. She is in a few of them, I remember at the time being very glad I could help her in that half marathon and at the same time set a PR. Funny enough, her PRs this year are about what I can run, and I thought I had made a lot of progress!

Now my curiosity is sparked, I wanted to find out why she did not continue to pursue Swiss citizenship or something similar. I found my answer:

"For more than two years, 20 year old Ethiopian runner Zenebech Tola, couldn't move and compete out of Switzerland where she had filed for asylum. Tired of waiting, the athlete who recorded times of 2'02"18 on 800m, 4'07"78 on 1500m and 71'43 in the half-marathon in 2004 has accepted an offer to become a citizen of Bahrain."

pvail

Thanks greatly for the added information. I knew that she did quite a bit of racing on the roads; however, she has made significant drops on her track times. Her pb in the 800m is almost 2.5 seconds faster, 1500m over 8 seconds and she still have alot of time in 2005 to get faster. The video I saw of her showed she had talent, I just didn't expect to see it blossom so soon and potent.

I wonder why Ethiopia and Sweden let such a talent get away from them? The improvement she made in such a short time is nearly unparallel.