Tamirat Tola

Tamirat Tola Abera (born 11 August 1991) is an Ethiopian world champion long-distance runner who competes in track, road and cross country events. He won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tamirat competed in the marathon at the 2017 and 2022 World Athletics Championships, earning silver and gold, respectively, setting a championship record at the latter in the process. He finished third at both the 2021 Tokyo and 2023 London Marathon and won the 2023 New York City Marathon, breaking the course record.

Career
Tamirat Tola made his half marathon debut in Agadir in 2013, and then quickly improved to win the České Budějovice Half Marathon in a time of 1:02:04 hours. He improved his best further to 1:01:27 at the Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon, then made a fast marathon debut with a time of 2:06:17 hours for fourth at the high-profile Dubai Marathon.

Tamirat won the Ethiopian national title in cross country in 2015 which led to his selection for the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Making his international debut, he took sixth place in the senior race which helped the Ethiopians narrowly take the team title on equal points with Kenya (Muktar Edris, Hagos Gebrhiwet and Atsedu Tsegay were the other point-scoring team members). He had mixed fortunes in the rest of the season: he failed to finish the 2015 Berlin Marathon but set bests of 60:08 minutes for the half marathon and 27:22.64 minutes for the 10,000 metres.

Several good performances on the circuit in late 2015/early 2016 led to wins at the Cross Internacional de Itálica, Cross International de la Constitución, Boclassic and Great Ethiopian Run. He was part of the national team setup in 2016, this time for the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. He was again an essential team member with his fifth-place finish in a time of 60:06 minutes, pushing Ethiopia (through Abayneh Ayele, Tamirat, and Mule Wasihun) to the team silver medals.

In 2017, Tamirat participated in the World Championships held in London, earning the silver medal in the marathon with a time of 2:09:49.

In 2022, he went one better in the marathon at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, winning gold and setting a championship record of 2:05:36 in the process.

In 2023, he won the New York City Marathon with a course record time of 2:04:58.

Circuit wins

 * 2013: Hawassa Half Marathon (ETH), České Budějovice Half Marathon
 * 2015: BOclassic
 * 2017: Dubai Marathon, Prague Half Marathon
 * 2018: BOclassic
 * 2019: Bogotá Half Marathon
 * 2021: Amsterdam Marathon
 * 2022: Trento Half Marathon (ITA)

Personal bests

 * 10,000 metres – 26:57.33 (Eugene, OR2016)
 * 10 kilometres – 28:12 (Bolzano 2018)
 * Half marathon – 59:37 (Prague 2017)
 * Marathon – 2:03:39 (Amsterdam 2021)