Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Nearly two weeks before she lines up at the start of the women’s marathon at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany, Ethiopian runner Dire Tune greets teammates, guests, and fans at the national team hotel on the outskirts of Addis Ababa with an unmistakable grin.What is the cause of this seemingly-perpetual happiness? “Confidence and peace,” says Tune. “I have been involved with the national team for the last four or five years and never have I seen such a healthy atmosphere in the team. The spirit has been fantastic and we can achieve big things in Berlin.”
The 24-year old has so far represented Ethiopia in two World championships (Helsinki and Osaka) and one Olympic Games (Beijing), but failed to even finish in the top 10 of all three races.
“We used to have a lot of selection problems in previous years,” says Tune. “The environment around the team used to be very tense and everyone in the team used to look at each other with suspicion. This year, there are a lot of changes. I am confident of my training and I also think that we can dominate in Berlin.”
Apart from predicting dominance by her teammates in the German capital, Tune will be satisfied by another improved year in the full Marathon and shorter events.
Her year began with a dominating victory in the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates where she improved the national Half Marathon record to 1:07.18. In April, she fought a close battle with Salina Kosgei in the Boston Marathon and finished just behind the Kenyan.
“The race did not go as expected,” says Tune who had started the race as the defending champion. “I had expected to run faster than the previous year. But the pace was very slow and I fought hard. The Kenyan beat me at the finish and I was very disappointed.”
In June, she returned to Ostrava for a crack at the World 20,000m record at the Golden Spike, but fell short of the target. “I tried to break the world record, but the pacemakers did not help me as well as I had wanted,” says Tune. “Running 50 laps on the track is a bit boring, but I had a good experience running around the track in Ostrava.”
Although Tune’s season best for the full Marathon is only 2:32.17, which was the 12th fastest in Ethiopia this year, her improved form on the roads and track convinced selectors to pick her ahead of faster runners for the team.
“It is always such an honour to represent your country in the big competitions,” she says. “Therefore, I am delighted that I have been selected to run for this team. If I and my teammates succeed, it would be great for women and the sport in Ethiopia.”
Of course, things were quite different when Tune came to this world 24 years ago in Kulemsa, a small village in the Arsi zone which is home to many of Ethiopia’s top runners. Then, few schools across Ethiopia encouraged girls to practice sports, but Tune remembers a strong relationship with Ethiopian distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie even as a child.
“My family knew Haile Gebrselassie’s family very well,” she says. “I was born just one kilometre from where Haile was born and we always heard about his success as children.”
There is also much more than Gebrselassie’s influence on Tune’s career. She comes from a fast-developing running dynasty led by former national team athlete Hadji Adilo, who coaches Tune and works for American-based Jordanian agent Hussein Makke. Adilo is a relative of Marathon runner Leila Aman, who is a sister of Tune’s husband Kelil Aman. Adilo too has four world class Marathon siblings in Hussein, Kassim, Radiya, while his latest running protégé, Frehiwot Dado, won the Rome Marathon two weeks ago.
Initially, Tune started running in elementary school in the sprints. In one of her first competitive races, she competed over the 400m, but joined the Global club run by Gebrselassie a year later after showing promise in a string of regional races.
“I mainly ran the 3000m and 5000m,” she says. “It was difficult competing for Global because we did not have any salary and lived in a small rented house with other runners. I joined Omedla [police club] in 2003 because we wanted to earn a living and at sustain ourselves.
Gebrselassie’s Global club collapsed shortly after other runners left for greener pastures. And Tune continued her progress setting 3000m (9.01) and 5000m (15.48) in her first two races abroad. But after taking advice from coaches, she decided to switch to the Marathon and made her debut in the 2005 Los Angeles Marathon where she finished fourth in 2:30.04.
She has since run 10 marathons including successive victories in the 2007 and 2008 Chevron Houston Marathon, the latter where she set her personal best of 2:24.42.
Joining the national team’s training camp in Addis Ababa has meant that Tune had to abandon some of her established training schedules and train as a group with the other four members of the team. “The coaches give us freedom to train on our own, but they design our training programme,” she says. “It is not like previous years. I feel more responsible for what I do in training because my body has gotten used to the marathon.”
And when asked what she expects in Berlin, Tune does not think even twice. “I think it will be one, two three for Ethiopia,” she says. “That is how confident I am about our chances.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
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