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Helen Bekele Tola

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Helen Bekele Tola (born 21 November 1994) is an Ethiopian–Swiss long-distance runner.[1] She finished second at the 2019 Tokyo Marathon, and third at the 2021 Berlin Marathon. She has also 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
Image of a woman in running kit
Tola during the 2019 Corrida bulloise [fr]
Personal information
Born (1994-11-21) 21 November 1994 (age 29)
Ethiopia
Sport
SportAthletics
Medal record
Marathon
World Marathon Majors
Silver medal – second place 2019 Tokyo Marathon
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Berlin Marathon

Personal life

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Helen Bekele Tola was born in Ethiopia. In 2015, she moved to Geneva, Switzerland.[2] Tola is married to Tesfaye Eticha, who competed for Switzerland at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[2]

Career

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Tola competes for the Stade Geneva athletics club.[3] In 2015, Tola won the Lausanne Marathon,[4] and the Basler Stadtlauf [de], a 5.9 kilometres (3.7 mi) race around the city.[5] In 2016, Tola won the Annecy Marathon, breaking the course record by over three minutes.[6] In the same year, she came second at the Lake Maggiore Half Marathon in a time of 1:15:37.[7] 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.[8][9] In the same year, she won the Switzerland Marathon light [de] half-marathon event in a course record time of 1:09:47.[10] In 2018, Tola came second at the 10 km Corrida de Houilles race,[11] sixth at the Berlin Marathon,[12] and ninth at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon.[13]

In 2019, Tola finished second at the Tokyo Marathon, in a personal best time of 2:21:01.[12][14] She also finished fourth at the Berlin Marathon,[2] 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.[15] She finished in 2:21:36, 25 seconds slower than her personal best.[16] Later in the year, Tola won the 17.7 kilometres (11.0 mi) Murtenlauf [de] 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.[17][18][19] She also won the 10 km race at the Lausanne Marathon,[2] the 10 km San Silvestre Vallecana, in a personal best time of 30:47,[14] and the Scalata al Castello 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) race in Arezzo, Italy.[20]

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.[21] 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.[22] She also won the 10,000 metres event at the Swiss Athletics Championships as a guest runner,[23] and came fourth in the one hour run race of the Memorial Van Damme Diamond League event.[24] Tola has also won the road race at the Escalade de Genève on four occasions.[16] Tola expressed a desire to represent Switzerland at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[2]

In 2021, Tola won the Belp Marathon.[25] Later in the year, she came third at the 2021 Berlin Marathon,[26] finishing behind fellow Ethiopians Gotytom Gebreslase and Hiwot Gebrekidan.[27][28] She came ninth at the 2021 Tokyo Marathon.[29]

References

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  1. ^ "L'athlète de classe mondiale Helen Bekele est dès à présent Suissesse | Swiss Athletics" (in French). 23 February 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e "HELEN BEKELE TOLA ET SIMONE TROXLER, DESTIN CROISÉ DE SUISSESSES". Le Multimedia.info (in French). 29 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  3. ^ "François Leboeuf : "Tout à coup, Helen Bekele était à côté de moi !"". Athle.ch (in French). 10 October 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Résultats 2015" (in French). Lausanne Marathon. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Äthiopierin überrascht am Stadtlauf". Telebasel (in German). 28 November 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Marathon d'Annecy : Kennedy Lagat Kipyego et Helen Bekele-Tola victorieux" (in French). Marathons.fr. 17 April 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Strada, la domenica di corsa". Italian Athletics Federation (in Italian). 7 March 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  8. ^ "Bekele breaks Barcelona course record". World Athletics. 12 March 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Récord femenino de Helen Bekele en la Zurich Marató de Barcelona". Carreras Populaires (in Spanish). 12 March 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Streckenrekord beim "Switzerland Marathon light"". Luzerner Zeitung (in German). 3 September 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  11. ^ "Corrida de Houilles : Wanders améliore son record d'Europe du 10 km". French Athletics Federation (in French). 31 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Premierensieg für Ruti Aga in Tokio" (in German). Run Austria. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ a b "Helen Bekele Tola y Bashir Abdi, campeones en Vallecas". ABC (in Spanish). 31 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Kenenisa Bekele misses out on world record by two seconds at Berlin Marathon". The Guardian. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  16. ^ a b "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.
  17. ^ "Helen Bekele Tola dynamite le record de Morat-Fribourg". Tribune de Genève (in French). 6 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  18. ^ "Helen Bekele Tola lief neuen Streckenrekord". Der Murternbieter (in German). 8 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Victoire et record pour Helen Bekele". La Liberté (in French). 6 October 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  20. ^ "Nouvelle victoire pour Helen Bekele Tola". Athlet.ch (in French). 27 May 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  21. ^ "Chepngetich Beaten In Madrid 10k Run". 98.4 Capital FM. 1 January 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  22. ^ "Top-Zeiten und Bestzeiten-Hagel". Runner's World (in German). 26 September 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  23. ^ "Abi Galpin among winners as traditional athletics returns to British Isles – weekly round-up". Athletics Weekly. 29 June 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  24. ^ "One Hour Women" (PDF) (pdf). Diamond League. 4 September 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  25. ^ "Maratona, Fabienne Schlumpf da record". Radiotelevisione svizzera (in Italian). 3 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  26. ^ "Ethiopia's Guye Adola and Gotytom Grebreslase are the surprise winners of the 2021 Berlin Marathon". Running Magazine Canada. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  27. ^ "Guye Adola and Gotytom Gebreslase Win the 2021 Berlin Marathon". Runner's World. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  28. ^ "Berlin Marathon: Ethiopia's Guye Adola and Gotytom Gebreslase win men's and women's races". BBC Sport. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  29. ^ "2022 Tokyo Marathon results". NBC Sports. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
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