Ageze Guadie

Ageze Guadie (Hebrew: גואדה אגזה; born September 11, 1989) is an Ethiopian-born Israeli Olympic marathon runner.[2][3]

Ageze Guadie
Personal information
Native nameגואדה אגזה
National team Israel
Born (1989-09-11) September 11, 1989
Ethiopia
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Weight56 kg (123 lb)[1]
Sport
SportRunning
Event(s)Marathon
Updated on 10 August 2016.

Early and personal life

Born in Ethiopia, he is an Ethiopian Jew (Beta Israel) and is the seventh of nine children in his family.[2][4] He made aliya and moved to Israel with his family at age 13, in 2002.[5][2][4] His family lived in an immigrant absorption center in Beersheba, while he went to a boarding school near Hadera.[2]

He served as a technical quartermaster in the Israel Defense Forces.[2] After the army, he worked as a waiter in a cafe, and as a mover.[2] He then became a sports teacher at a school in Netanya, Israel, where he now lives.[2]

Running career

He ran for the club Hapoel Emek Hefer, won Under-16 regional and national competitions at middle distances, and at the age of 16 won the Israeli cross country youth championship.[2][4] His mother initially did not want him to compete in running, as she felt it was a difficult sport and she thought he would be too skinny.[2] In 2012, he signed up for physical education studies at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, and trained with Israeli Olympic marathon runner Zohar Zimro.[2]

In December 2015 he came in third with a time of 67:04 in the Israeli championships in the half marathon in Beit She'an, behind Marhu Teferi and Berihun Weve.[2][6] He began to consider running a marathon for the first time, saying "I felt that if I did 21 kilometers in 1:07, I had the second half in my legs. Your gut tells you that you can do it. Go for it. I had faith and courage; it came from the heart."[2]

Guadie completed his first marathon run, at the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands in April 2016, in a time of 2:18:51.[7][8] He came in 27th.[6] His time was the second-best for an Israeli running his first marathon, after Tesama Moogas."[2] He reflected, "This marathon taught me two things: Ability and courage. To believe in yourself and not be afraid, to go for broke, to turn the impossible into the possible."[2]

With his time in the Rotterdam Marathon, which was nine seconds better than the Olympic qualification standard, he qualified for the 2016 Olympics.[2] He competed for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the marathon, and finished 122nd with a time of 2:30:45.[9] At the Seville Marathon in Spain in February 2020, he set his personal best with a time of 2:12:06. During that race, he also set a new personal best in half marathon (1:05:23).

Personal bests

See also

References
  1. "GUADIE Ageze - Olympic Athletics | Israel". Rio2016.com. Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  2. Uri Talshir (2016-04-24). "An Ethiopian Israeli's Run From His Trailer Home to the Rio Olympics - Sports". Haaretz. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  3. "Results » גואדה אגזה". Israeli Athletic Association. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  4. "Ageze Guadie greeted at Ben-Gurion International Airport after competing in the Rotterdam Marathon; 2016". Jewish Virtual Library. 2016-07-30. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  5. "Athletics: Israeli runner Rio-bound after stunning breakthrough". Times of India. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2016-08-06.
  6. "Athlete: Ageze Guadie". European Athletics. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  7. Ben, Almog (2016-04-24). "An Ethiopian Israeli's Run From His Trailer Home to the Rio Olympics - Sports". Haaretz. Retrieved 2016-08-06.
  8. "Olympic runner defies the odds". KCTV5. 2016-07-28. Archived from the original on 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2016-08-06.
  9. [2:30:45]
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