Amanal Petros and the marathon of his life

AOn Sunday Amanal Petros ran a German marathon record in Valencia, the 42.195 kilometers in 2:07:18 hours. In what is probably the strongest marathon in history – thirty runners undercut 2:10 hours, more than ever before – that was only enough for 16th place. A grand gesture cost the world’s attention. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite at the top and you couldn’t see me,” says the 25-year-old about his finish. “I had my arms crossed. With this and with the result that I brought, I wanted to show people what was happening in my home country.

For the young man who lives in Bochum, who has a sports funding agency in the Bundeswehr and trains at TV Wattenscheid, home is still Tigray, the region in northern Ethiopia. Wherever Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, marched in with the Ethiopian army, dissolved the regional government in Mek’ele, killed at least 500 fighters and displaced more than 100,000 civilians. And where Petros suspects, no hopes that his mother and two sisters are still alive. But for four weeks, as is often thoughtlessly said, he has not received any signs of life from them.