This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by their given name, Lelisa, and not as Delisa.
Lelisa Desisa
Lelisa Desisa Benti, male winner of 2013 Boston Marathon, almost at the end of the Wellesley College scream tunnel.
He came close to a personal best at the World's Best 10K in February 2011, taking third place in a time of 28:02 minutes.[12] This served as preparation for the City-Pier-City Loop in March, where he came out on top in a five-man sprint finish to record a personal best of 59:37 minutes for the half marathon.[13] In a two-day period, he won the Cooper River Bridge Run and then broke the course record at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, improving upon a mark that had stood for 16 years.[14] That June he reached the podium at the World 10K Bangalore, coming third behind Kenyan opposition.[15] He was not selected for the World Championships that year but instead won the half marathon at the 2011 All-Africa Games held that same month. In November, he returned to Delhi and ran a best of 59:30minutes to win the half marathon race, beating Geoffrey Kipsang by a second.[16]
In June 2012, he ran a personal best of 27:18.17 minutes to win the 10,000 metres in Liège. He was selected as an Olympic squad reserve as a result.[17] A 5000 metres best of 13:22.91 minutes came in June, but ultimately he did not compete at the Olympics. He tried to defend his title at the Delhi Half Marathon but managed only seventh place.[18]
In his debut over the marathon distance, he made one of the fastest-ever debuts by winning the 2013 Dubai Marathon in a time of 2:04:45 hours. He was surprised by the quick time and said he would like to make a world record attempt in the future.[2] Three months later, in the 2013 Boston Marathon, he took the victory in a time of 2:10:22. Desisa was not hurt in the Boston Marathon bombing that occurred after his victory because the bombing took place nearly 3 hours after he passed through the finish line.[19] Desisa later, in a widely acclaimed gesture, returned his 2013 Boston Marathon winner medal back to the city, in order to honor the victims of the bombings.[20]
On 6 May 2017, Desisa participated in Nike's Breaking2 attempt to run a sub-2-hour marathon. Desisa continued until around kilometer 18, when he began to slow and fell off the projected sub-2-hour pace. Eliud Kipchoge won the race in 2:00:25, Tadese was second in 2:06:51, and Desisa was third with a time of 2:14:10. Although Desisa was way far off from actually breaking the barrier, former athlete and world record holder Paula Radcliffe said: "He is still very young, at only 27... Once he figures it all out and matures a bit more, he will be unstoppable".
Lelisa had one marathon race in 2020, where he finished 35th at the Valencia Marathon in a time of 2:10:44 in December. Kenya's Evans Chebet won the race in a time of 2:03:00.
In 2021 Lelisa took part in the Ethiopian Olympic Marathon Trials in Sebeta, Ethiopia, he finished 2nd in a close race between winner Shura Kitata, and 3rd place finished Sisay Lemma. Lelisa's performance qualifies him to compete for Ethiopia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games men's marathon. [24]
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