Running to survive
Tsegai Tewelde was blown up by a landmine, escaped to seek asylum in Scotland and will now represent Team GB in only his second marathon...
YOU need to lean in close to listen to Tsegai Tewelde, the 26-yearold Eritrea-born athlete who will run the Rio Olympic marathon for Team GB. He is so softly spoken it can be hard to hear him unless you are within inches. And parts of his story are so extraordinary that you want to make sure you catch them correctly.
We are in Glasgow, his adopted home city, sitting at a corner table in a cafe at a museum in a park. ‘I was eight,’ he says, barely above a whisper. ‘I was in the countryside.’ He pauses. ‘The bomb. My friend trod. I don’t remember a lot.’
Our heads are not far apart and the thick scar that runs across Tewelde’s right temple is just one of the physical reminders of the incident we are discussing.
Tewelde grew up in the highlands outside Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, the son of a farmer. Like many places in his native country, the region was peppered with land mines. ‘Even as a child I was very active,’ he says. ‘Our life then, it was running all day.’
One morning he and his friend, the same age, were crossing a field when his companion stepped on a land mine that killed him. The explosion rendered Tewelde unconscious, riddled with shrapnel and in a fight for his life.
‘I was numb,’ he says, talking not just about the hours and days ahead. ‘They took me to the hospital. It wasn’t far but there wasn’t a vehicle. They carried me half way. They carried me down the mountain. Then the ambulance came. I have five parts of my body …’
He stops speaking, not because he cannot go on but because there is not much else to add, except to gesture to the areas damaged in the blast: the side of his skull, his chin, neck and two areas on the front of his torso.
It would only be later, after travelling to Edinburgh for the world cross country championships in 2008, then defecting in the night, crossing Scotland, claiming asylum, settling into a new, dislocated life and gaining access to modern healthcare, that most of the metal was finally removed. One piece remains, somewhere in his chest.
That is just part of Tewelde’s tale, the bit that most profoundly affected his body, a body that has only ever run one marathon to date, in London in April.
He finished in 12th place in two hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds to qualify for Rio as part of a three-man British contingent over 26 miles. The other two are also Glasgow-based, brothers Callum and Derek Hawkins. To reiterate, the Rio race will be just the second marathon of Tewelde’s life. There is a palpable thrill and pride he feels at being able to represent Britain and a gratitude at having been so warmly received here.
Before 2008, Tewelde had kept some fine athletic company, sporadically. He was fifth in the 1500m at the 2006 junior world championships in Beijing in a race
where silver went to Abdalaati Iguider of Morocco, who became an Olympic medallist in London. That 2006 meeting was also a springboard for Kenya’s David Rudisha, Olympic gold winner since and Jamaica’s Yohan Blake, ditto, among others.
‘Tsegai obviously had talent at that young age but circumstances meant it never developed,’ says John Mackay, Tewelde’s coach and a father figure these past eight years.
Mackay is a teacher by day and a coach at Shettleston Harriers most of the rest of the time. He first met Tewelde when the latter was one of six Eritrean cross country runners claiming asylum in March 2008.
‘I don’t want to speak about politics,’ says Tewelde. But it was established at the time that he and his team-mates were effectively threatened by an Eritrean official that they could be kicked off the squad if they under-performed and face conscription to the army and all the brutality that would entail.
Instead, they fled in the night to an Edinburgh train station and bought tickets to where the cash in their pockets would take them. That was Glasgow. The group went straight to the nearest police station and handed themselves in. ‘On the Monday, I got a call from the Refugee Council saying were we interested in six athletes,’ says Mackay.
‘They came to the track. At that point they hadn’t even been granted leave to stay. They had no possessions except their clothes. We did what we could.’
TEWELDE was helped by the local authorities with basic accommodation.He took work where he found it, as a care assistant in a nursing home and as a kitchen porter. And he ran, despite weather and circumstances that often made life miserable. ‘It was dark for me at times,’ he says.
For years he could not contemplate going back to Eritrea to visit. His
brother died in his absence and Tewelde could not return for the funeral. There was a five-year wait before being able even to apply for British citizenship, then a 20-month application process to negotiate on top. ‘But at Shettleston, I felt like family,’ he says. ‘That was important.’ I ask Tewelde if he can remember how he felt when he got his British passport and his response is not just immediate but audible from feet away. Emphatic. He says: ‘December 6, 2014.’ How did that feel? ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ he says, beaming. ‘It gave me freedom.’ How did he celebrate? ‘I didn’t do anything special. I told my friends and we had a cup of tea.’ The freedom he mentions is so profound he can now travel back to Eritrea as a Briton and has no trouble there because of that. He has been back to Asmara for altitude training. It is cheap at least, which is a plus because he has no funding aside from the odd private donation and some basic kit. He may get Lottery money from this September onwards after his London marathon and depending on his performance in Rio. He gained entry into the London elite field with a wild card from race director Dave Bedford. Tewelde repaid the faith with a top-12 finish on his distance debut, although he gave Mackay a fright, watching on TV at home.
‘They started commentating on the lead group and Steve Cram said the Hawkins brothers were not the first Brits and that Tsegai Tewelde was a minute clear of them,’ the coach says, a smile on his face.
‘I thought, “Oh dear, he has gone out too fast”. I thought he’d killed his chances and in the final 5k we were watching him die on his legs so I was so pleased he got there. The lad has been running 130 miles a week!’
Tewelde himself smiles. ‘I hit the wall,’ he says. His aim for Rio, he says, is ‘to try my best and get a personal best.’
The reality is that Tewelde has already won in many senses, simply by getting to the Games.
Mackay says: ‘Tsegai’s story shows that, if you apply yourself, you can do very well. I’m proud of him just as I’m proud of all the guys in the club.
‘At training last week we had athletes who are of Polish origin and Iranian, Eritrean, Scottish, Italian, Irish, Ugandan, Somalian. We’re a multi-cultural city with good integration. Tsegai’s story is a good story about Glasgow and Scotland.’
And the human spirit, which is always at the heart of the best stories in any Olympics.