April 29, 2008: Nine athletes join new training programme at the Running Across Borders Traininig Camp.
Last week, 9 young athletes joined the new training programme at Running Across Borders. They travelled with Co-director Garrett Ash from the outlying towns of Asella and Bekoji to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they will be based for the coming months. Garrett tells the story of their journey; not merely a journey of miles but a journey of faith and hope for the bright futures awaiting these young runners.
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On Wednesday, 15 April, I travelled from Addis Ababa, home of RAB’s new training camp, to Asella, the largest town in the Arsi Zone. This rural region of Ethiopia is the birthplace of countless legendary runners, such as Tirunesh Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebresilassie and Geta Wami. From Thursday through Saturday, I collected our previously selected beneficiary athletes who come from various towns around the region.
I met first with Seada Nura Bati and her uncle Menza Bati. When Seada began to succeed in running competitions through Asella Primary and Secondary School, Menza was the first family member to notice her talent. Seada has 6 siblings, and for the family to support her in both school and athletics was not easy. Coming up with 200 Birr (roughly 20 USD) several times per year for Seada to buy shoes was challenging,. But Menza saw Seada’s potential to succeed and prosper as an athlete. One does not need to look far in Asella to see the economic potential in running. Among the largest buildings in the area are the ‘Kenenisa Hotel’ (built by 5k/10k world-record holder Kenenisa Bekele), ‘Daratu Tulu Hotel,’ and ‘Gebresilassie Building.’
Menza repeatedly encouraged Seada to persevere, despite any discouragement she faced as an athlete: a bad race, illness, injury, or lack of support. Menza’s vision and the vision of Running Across Borders is a shared one; Seada’s gift and passion for running can lead her to economic opportunities. Running Across Borders will give her every opportunity to become a professional athlete. However, even if she does not succeed, the training she receives with us will give her language and employment skills that will help secure her future.
I then spoke with young runner Dunkane Keba Desso. Unlike Seada, Dunkane does not have relatives encouraging her from a town 10km away. Her entire family lives in the Wollega Region, 600 km from Arsi. In Wollega, Dunkane was excelling in athletics but doing so as an isolated individual; she had little around her in the way of training partners, coaching or material support. She knew the opportunities to compete and progress her talent lay in Addis Ababa, but she and her family lacked the means to support her in the capital city. As an alternative, she travelled to Asella after completing secondary school. Asella is a rural town with minimal facilities and support for athletes. However in contrast to Wollega athletes abound in Asella. While there she found coaches and sports administrators who supported her in her aspiration and sought opportunities for her.
She was recruited by the famous Mugher Cement Athletics Club and blossomed under their support however after a short time, she unfortunately sustained an injury. Club officials waited some months for Dunkane to heal, but with the tight economy and high turnover of athletes in Ethiopia, they made the difficult decision to release her in the summer of 2007.
Dunkane now found herself in Asella, with only limited support from her family a great distance away, unsure of what her next move might be. Having invested so much of her own and her family’s precious time and resources in athletics, she was not prepared to give up. But she was without essential means of support, lacking room and board, shoes and coaching. Still she kept training, with the Government-sponsored Zonal Coach Temeney Disassa attending his sessions 3 times per week and continued to stretch her family’s support as far as it would go. Improvements started to come. Even on limited training, she began to excel on a local scale once again, as she had in Wollega.
By December, 2008, she had won the Arsi Zone championships 10000m run. Last February she did the same at the Oromea Region Championships in Adema. This qualified her for a national-level competition in Addis Ababa where she placed 3rd in 36:25. Although a long training road and a 6.5-minute improvement in PB performance still stands between her and the Ethiopian legends like Tirunesh Dibaba who have risen before her, Dunkane has shown she can persevere against adversity. Her stay at the RAB training camp will provide a structured training program, with sufficient combinations of load and recovery, an optimal nutrition regimen and high-level coaching. Consultations with our volunteer medical professionals may prove vital: Dr. Ayalew Tilahun, longtime consultant to the Ethiopian National Athletics team, will assist us on occasion and Dr. Simon Wood from the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, UK has volunteered his expertise via email consultation.
A third beneficiary of RAB’s program, Endila Mekonnen Teklib, joined us on Thursday, as did young runners Amen and Haptamu. Amen and I spoke about the program the athletes are about to begin in Addis. Though still a grade 10 student Amen addressed me with maturity and poise. Our conversation unfolded: He asked what is RAb’s objective for individuals like Amen and was able to explain our aims are athletics, education, and employment. Amen wants to be a doctor and is enthusiastic in his beleief that he can make it. He has finished school classes and is revising for exams in June. ‘I want to be a doctor someday,’ he says. ‘I know I can do it.’ ‘I believe you can also,’ I respond. ‘How is your school going?’ ‘Well I’ve finished the classes, now all that remains is to revise for exams in June.’ ‘So maybe you should stay here near your school and join the programme after you finish.’ ‘No, no, I can do it; I can revise while we train in Addis.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yes, I can do it.’ I remind him that in Addis we’ll be training hard most days. It’s not just 3 days per week like the Arsi Zonal Project. The response: ‘I can do it. I can be an athlete and also a top student. I can do both.’
Friday morning and Abdulay Admassu, the Vice-Chief of the Arsi Zone Youth and Sport Administration and I caught a bus to make the 56km, 3-hour journey to the town of Bekoji. First I met Abdumalack, the Chief of Bekoji Woreda, a unit of the Zonal Youth and Sport Administration. Abdulmalack explained to me that over 100 athletes train in Bekoji and recounted several international non-profit organizations which have aided over the past few years with shoes, improvements to the former schools of now-legendary athletes, and high-quality sport clothing. ‘But we need more,’ he tells me. Like Asella, Bekoji has a dirt-track stadium, grass steps around it for running short hill bursts and nearby forest area for cross-country training. There is, however, no asphalt road where coaches can prepare athletes to compete in half- and full-marathon road competitions.
He also expresses similar concerns as Abdulay about what the athletes under him are lacking. Word of the most recent competition in Arsi Zone, a cross-country race in Asella, did not manage to reach a critical mass of the amateur athletes training in the Bekoji project highlighting the fact that it is difficult to spread word to a town that lies a long way down a bumpy dirt road, has no Internet facilities and limited mobile phone technology.
Bekoji is centrally-located among several villages, so the families of the athletes joining RAB were able to come and meet with Abdulay and me. The fathers of all three, as well as the mother of Dikinesh, all dressed in the traditional cloth gowns of the Oromea people, sat at the table expressing the hope that their children will one day represent Ethiopia in the national sport that is long-distance running
All four parents are farmers, as are a large fraction of the Oromea people. They explained that their children face an even greater obligation to their families: to become equal to or better than their fathers, as is the expectation of children born in the Oromea tradition. These three young runners--Eda’O, Dikinesh, and Eshetu--through the chances Running Across Borders are giving them in athletics, education, and employment, have the chance to equal or better their fathers in a variety of ways. Before leaving I presented a gift of 1kg of coffee to each of the families, who then held a traditional ceremony to bless the coffee, as well as the RAB project and its future success.
The next day, back in Asella with the athletes, I met Sintayo, the Bekoji project coach who has coached Eda’O, Eshetu, and Dikinesh, as he did outstanding Ethiopian runners Geta Wami and Deratu Tulu in the past. I pointed out to Sintayo that, despite the lack of an asphalt road or a tartan track for training, Eshetu won the Arsi Zone Half-Marathon championship and Eda’O ran 30:16 for a 10k in a national competition on the international-standard track at Addis Ababa stadium. These young runners have great potential.
Finally, I met Daniel Alemu, our ninth new runner. Daniel sat next to me at the table and asked a variety of well-targeted questions. He wanted to know exactly which domestic competitions in Ethiopia RAB will arrange for the athletes. His concern is highly valid, as his recent performances have already begun to qualify him for national-level track meets in Addis Ababa, in the 800 and 1500 events. He also wanted to know about the camp: Who manages everything? How does the shopping get done? Is the accounting done accurately? Daniel has an understanding of the entire administrative side of the operations. To see such enthusiasm by this young athlete for the entire RAB project is an early sign of encouragement as we push toward all the goals of our program.
After the intense few days of meetings with athletes and family members in two different towns, we were sent on our way with good wishes. We boarded the bus on Monday morning, April 20, to begin the athletes’ journey to Addis Ababa and the RAB camp.
Watch this space for full reports on the beginning weeks of RAB’s new training camp.
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