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Ethiopian-Swiss long-distance runner From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
.jpg) Tola during the 2019 Corrida bulloise | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | 21 November 1994 Ethiopia | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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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]
Tola competes for the Stade Geneva athletics club.[3] In 2015, Tola won the Lausanne Marathon,[4] and the Basler Stadtlauf, 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 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 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]
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