Yared Shegumo

Yared Neda Shegumo is a Polish distance runner, who specializes in the Marathon. His biggest success to date is the silver medal at the 2014 European Championships in Zürich.

Biography

Yared first came to Poland in 1999 to represent his native Ethiopia at the 1999 World Youth Championships which were held in Bydgoszcz. He competed in the 400 metres, going out in the semifinals. Since Ethiopia was at the time in the middle of the war with Eritrea, he decided to defect for fear of being conscripted. The first year and a half in the new country, he spent in a center for immigrants. In his trainings, he moved up from the sprints to the middle-distances. In 2004 he beat a long-standing Polish record in the indoor 3000 metres. In the same distance he came third at the 2005 European Cup. Soon, however, his results stagnated and he lost the support from the Polish Athletics Federation. Due to a difficult financial situation, he decided to migrate to England where he worked in a warehouse near Birmingham. At the time he stopped training almost completely.
In 2011, he came back to Poland and resumed his trainings, this time concentrating on road running. He won the 10 kilometres at the largest Polish mass running event "Run Warsaw" the same year. In 2013, he came first at the Warsaw Marathon, which was his debut at this distance. He won a silver medal at the 2014 European Athletics Championships in the Marathon. In 2018, he competed in the men's marathon at the 2018 European Athletics Championships held in Berlin, Germany. He did not finish his race.

In 2005 he married his Ethiopian girlfriend, Birtukan. They have one daughter and one son.

Outdoor

Indoor