Tilahun Regassa Home: Dukem, Ethiopia Bib: #8 Pronunciation: Till-a-hunn Ree-gaa-saa Birthdate: 18 January 1990 Personal Best: 2:05:27 (Chicago, 2012)

World Marathon Majors:

07Oct12

Bank of America Chicago Marathon

3rd

2:05:27

Additional Marathon Highlights:

14Apr13

ABN-AMRO Rotterdam Marathon

1st

2:05:38

Career Notes:

Tilahun Regassa ran one of the fastest marathon debuts of all time when he finished third at the 2012 Chicago Marathon in 2:05:27. The following spring he won the 2013 Rotterdam Marathon in 2:05:38. He says his proudest accomplishment was winning the 2010 Abu Dhabi Zayed International Half Marathon in 59:19. He has run the half marathon under 1:01:00 five times, including a 59:36 win at the 2008 Lille Half Marathon. He competed for Ethiopia on the 2009 Birmingham IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and finished 11th in 1:02:08.

Personal Notes:

Regassa says, “In Ethiopia it is everyone’s dream to be a great runner, because our country is so rich in the history of athletics, so I started to run to be like the great ones.” He trains in Addis Ababa with his team and his coach, Haji Adillo. He likes to watch English Premier League football and cheer for Arsenal, which is his favorite team. Regassa says, “Boston is the biggest race in the world and I want to be a Boston Marathon champion.”

“The Marathon distance is very difficult to cover and without the support of all of the fans and people cheering us on and the other runners, we would have a very difficult time to run the full race. So we work together to make a marathon happen.”