Helen Bekele Tola

Helen Bekele Tola (born 21 November 1994) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. She finished second at the 2019 Tokyo Marathon and has won the Annecy and Barcelona Marathons, as well as multiple other long-distance events. Born in Ethiopia, she now lives in Switzerland.

Helen Bekele Tola
Tola during the 2019 Corrida bulloise
Personal information
Born (1994-11-21) 21 November 1994
Ethiopia
Sport
SportAthletics
Medal record
Marathon
World Marathon Majors
2019 TokyoMarathon

Personal life

Helen Bekele Tola was born in Ethiopia. In 2005, she moved to Geneva, Switzerland.[1] Tola is married to Tesfaye Eticha, who competed for Switzerland at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[1]

Career

Tola competes for the Stade Geneva athletics club.[2] In 2015, Tola won the Basel Stadtlauf, a 5.9 kilometres (3.7 mi) race around the city.[3] In 2016, Tola won the Annecy Marathon, breaking the course record by over three minutes.[4] In the same year, she came second at the Lake Maggiore Half Marathon in a time of 1:15:37.[5] In 2017, she won the Barcelona Marathon in a course record time of 2:25:04. It was over four minutes better than her previous personal best.[6][7] In the same year, she won the Switzerland Marathon light half-marathon event in a course record time of 1:09:47.[8] In 2018, Tola came second at the 10km Corrida de Houilles race,[9] sixth at the Berlin Marathon,[10] and ninth at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon.[11]

In 2019, Tola finished second at the Tokyo Marathon, in a personal best time of 2:21:01.[10][12] She also finished fourth at the Berlin Marathon,[1] and was in the leading group of four racers, alongside eventual winner Ashete Bekere, Mare Dibaba, and Sally Chepyego Kaptich, for most of the race.[13] She finished in 2:21:36, 25 seconds slower than her personal best.[14] Later in the year, Tola won the 17.7 kilometres (11.0 mi) Murtenlauf race from Murten to Fribourg in a course record time of 57:50. She broke Franziska Rochat-Moser's 22 year old previous record by over a minute.[15][16][17] She also won the 10km race at the Lausanne Marathon,[1] the 10km San Silvestre Vallecana, in a personal best time of 30:47,[12] and the Scalata al Castello 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) race in Arezzo, Italy.[18]

In 2020, Tola won the Madrid 10k Run, beating pre-race favourite Ruth Chepng'etich. She finished in 30:50, the fourth fastest ever time at the event.[19] Later in the year, she came second at a Berlin 10k invitational event; her time of 30:59 was the fifth fastest time of the year.[20] She also came fourth in the one hour run race of the Memorial Van Damme Diamond League event.[21]

Tola has also won the road race at the Escalade de Genève on four occasions.[14] Tola has expressed a desire to represent Switzerland at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[1]

References
  1. "HELEN BEKELE TOLA ET SIMONE TROXLER, DESTIN CROISÉ DE SUISSESSES". Le Multimedia.info (in French). 29 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. "François Leboeuf : "Tout à coup, Helen Bekele était à côté de moi !"". Athle.ch (in French). 10 October 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  3. "Äthiopierin überrascht am Stadtlauf". Telebasel (in German). 28 November 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  4. "Marathon d'Annecy : Kennedy Lagat Kipyego et Helen Bekele-Tola victorieux" (in French). Marathons.fr. 17 April 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  5. "Strada, la domenica di corsa". Italian Athletics Federation (in Italian). 7 March 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  6. "Bekele breaks Barcelona course record". World Athletics. 12 March 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  7. "Récord femenino de Helen Bekele en la Zurich Marató de Barcelona". Carreras Populaires (in Spanish). 12 March 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  8. "Streckenrekord beim "Switzerland Marathon light"". Luzerner Zeitung (in German). 3 September 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  9. "Corrida de Houilles : Wanders améliore son record d'Europe du 10 km". French Athletics Federation (in French). 31 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  10. "Premierensieg für Ruti Aga in Tokio" (in German). Run Austria. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  11. "RAK Half Marathon am 9. Februar 2018: Wieder eine Flut von Fabelzeiten im Emirat" (in German). Run.hwinter.de. 9 February 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  12. "Helen Bekele Tola y Bashir Abdi, campeones en Vallecas". ABC (in Spanish). 31 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  13. "Kenenisa Bekele misses out on world record by two seconds at Berlin Marathon". The Guardian. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  14. "Marathon de Berlin : Kenenisa Bekele frôle le record du monde, Helen Bekele Tola finit excellente 4e". Athlet.ch (in French). 29 September 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  15. "Helen Bekele Tola dynamite le record de Morat-Fribourg". Tribune de Genève (in French). 6 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  16. "Helen Bekele Tola lief neuen Streckenrekord". Der Murternbieter (in German). 8 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  17. "Victoire et record pour Helen Bekele". La Liberté (in French). 6 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  18. "Nouvelle victoire pour Helen Bekele Tola". Athlet.ch (in French). 27 May 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  19. "Chepngetich Beaten In Madrid 10k Run". 98.4 Capital FM. 1 January 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  20. "Top-Zeiten und Bestzeiten-Hagel". Runner's World (in German). 26 September 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  21. "One Hour Women" (PDF) (pdf). Diamond League. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
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