Posted: July 4, 2006

Athletics: Difficult Life Of Dejere Kebede Cut Short At 25

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Dejere Kebede, part of Ethiopia's gold medal team at the 2001 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships, was found dead in his apartment in Islington, England, on June 5, according to his club, Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club. He was only 25 years-old.

The 2001 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships were held in Bristol, England, and after the race, Kebede sought asylum in England. He had finished the race in 62nd position in 1:04:30, behind his compatriots Haile Gebrselassie (gold medal), Tesfaye Jifar (silver) and Tesfaye Tola (5th place). For Kebede it was a two minute personal best.

According to his club, Kebede's father was murdered when he was just seven years-old, and Kebede had a rough life growing up in Ethiopia where his mother and sister still live.

He joined Hercules Wimbledon in 2002, and settled into the British club system. In 2005 he set course records at the Leeds and the Stratford Shakespeare Half-Marathons.

In 2005 a doctor who had worked with Kebede and who had helped him to find places to stay around London, arranged for him to spend two months training in Kenya.

"Unfortunately, he appears to have picked up a bug while in Africa and when he returned to London he fell ill," reads a statement posted on the Hercules Wimbledon web site. "He was treated at University College, London, where experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine were unable to identify what was ailing him, but they did discover he was suffering from epilepsy and he was put on medication to treat his condition."

Kebede realized his dream of British citizenship last March, and had managed to move into his own apartment in Islington. He wanted to represent Britain at the 2008 Olympic Games, according to his club. It was there that he was found dead; an autopsy failed to reveal the cause of death.

A fund raising effort is being led by Roehampton University's Sports Performance Assessment and Rehabilitation Centre to have Kebede's body sent back to Ethiopia where it can be interred next to his father's.

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