Tamirat Tola

Tamirat Tola
	Tamirat at the 2015 Berlin Marathon
Personal information
Full name	Tamirat Tola Abera
Nationality	Ethiopian
Born	11 August 1991 (age 32)
Sport
Country	Ethiopia
Sport	Athletics
Event	Long-distance running
Achievements and titles
Personal best	Marathon: 2:03:39 (Amsterdam 2021);
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing Ethiopia
Olympic Games
World Championships
World Half Marathon Championships
World Cross Country Championships
World Marathon Majors

Tamirat Tola Abera (born 11 August 1991) is an Ethiopian world champion long-distance runner who competes in track, road and cross country events. He won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tamirat competed in the marathon at the 2017 and 2022 World Athletics Championships, earning silver and gold, respectively, setting a championship record at the latter in the process. He finished third at both the 2021 Tokyo and 2023 London Marathon and won the 2023 New York City Marathon, breaking the course record.

Career

Tamirat Tola made his half marathon debut in Agadir in 2013, and then quickly improved to win the České Budějovice Half Marathon in a time of 1:02:04 hours. He improved his best further to 1:01:27 at the Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon,^[1] then made a fast marathon debut with a time of 2:06:17 hours for fourth at the high-profile Dubai Marathon.^[2]

Tamirat won the Ethiopian national title in cross country in 2015 which led to his selection for the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.^[3] Making his international debut, he took sixth place in the senior race which helped the Ethiopians narrowly take the team title on equal points with Kenya (Muktar Edris, Hagos Gebrhiwet and Atsedu Tsegay were the other point-scoring team members).^[4] He had mixed fortunes in the rest of the season: he failed to finish the 2015 Berlin Marathon but set bests of 60:08 minutes for the half marathon and 27:22.64 minutes for the 10,000 metres.^[1]

Several good performances on the circuit in late 2015/early 2016 led to wins at the Cross Internacional de Itálica, Cross International de la Constitución, Boclassic and Great Ethiopian Run.^[1] He was part of the national team setup in 2016, this time for the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. He was again an essential team member with his fifth-place finish in a time of 60:06 minutes, pushing Ethiopia (through Abayneh Ayele, Tamirat, and Mule Wasihun) to the team silver medals.^[4]

In 2017, Tamirat participated in the World Championships held in London, earning the silver medal in the marathon with a time of 2:09:49.^[5]^[6]

In 2022, he went one better in the marathon at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, winning gold and setting a championship record of 2:05:36 in the process.^[7]

In 2023, he won the New York City Marathon with a course record time of 2:04:58.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Achievements

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Result
Representing Ethiopia
2015	World Cross Country Championships	Guiyang, China	6th	Senior race	35:33
2015	World Cross Country Championships	Guiyang, China	1st	Team	20 pts
2016	World Half Marathon Championships	Cardiff, United Kingdom	5th	Half marathon	1:00:06
	World Half Marathon Championships	Cardiff, United Kingdom	2nd	Team	3:01:16
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	3rd	10,000 m	27:06.26
2017	World Championships	London, United Kingdom	2nd	Marathon	2:09:49
2022	World Championships	Eugene, OR, United States	1st	Marathon	2:05:36 CR
2023	World Championships	Budapest, Hungary	–	Marathon	DNF
World Marathon Majors
2015	Berlin Marathon	Berlin, Germany	–	Marathon	DNF
2018	Boston Marathon	Boston, MA, United States	–	Marathon	DNF
2018	New York City Marathon	New York, NY, United States	4th	Marathon	2:08:30
2019	London Marathon	London, United Kingdom	6th	Marathon	2:06:57
2019	New York City Marathon	New York, NY, United States	4th	Marathon	2:09:20
2020	London Marathon	London, United Kingdom	6th	Marathon	2:06:41
2022	Tokyo Marathon	Tokyo, Japan	3rd	Marathon	2:04:14
2023	London Marathon	London, United Kingdom	3rd	Marathon	2:04:59
2023	New York City Marathon	New York, NY, United States	1st	Marathon	2:04:58