The Ethiopian distance running legend, who won Olympic 10,000m titles in 1992 and 2000, Derartu Tulu won the 2019 Woman of the Year Award while upcoming Ethiopian distance athlete Selomon Barega named Male Rising star of the Year.
The first Ethiopian woman and the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal, which she won in the 10,000 m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games only to double her gold in Sydney in 2000 coming from maternity has served as acting president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation since November 2018. She is also a Council member of the African Athletics Confederation and vice president of the East Africa Athletics Region. The ever smiling African Women great distance athlete Derartu also shares a place in Athletics history book with legendary marathoner Abebe Bikila; the first black African to win Olympic gold medal.
Considered by many as the leading athlete to represent Ethiopia in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Selomon Barega 19 took The Male Rising Star of 2019 award ahead of his contenders’ fellow Ethiopian 3,000m steeple chase gold winner Lemecha Girma and Pan American champion Brazilian Dos Santos. The 19-year-old Selomon was the silver medalist in the 5000m at the World Championships, and finished fifth in the senior race at the World Cross Country Championships Aarhus 2019. The Ethiopian also produced world U20 leads at both the 5000m and 10,000m with 12:53.04 and 26:49.46, respectively.