Tirunesh was named the Ambassador on International Women’s Day, while the airline launched its debut flight to Buenos Aires, its 6th gateway to the Americas, with an all women operated flight. Photo/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 9 – Three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba has been named the Ethiopian Airline Brand Ambassador.
Tirunesh was named the Ambassador on International Women’s Day, while the airline launched its debut flight to Buenos Aires, its 6th gateway to the Americas, with an all women operated flight.
Tirunesh has won double gold at the Beijing Olympics in 5000m and 10000m. She is the youngest female world champion in the history of athletics, the first woman to achieve the Olympic 5,000m, 10,000m double, and the first to successfully defend a long-distance title at the Games.
Tirunesh has now moved to road race where she won her 42km debut at Chicago Marathon in 2017 and she will be looking to go one step higher when she returns to London Marathon this year.
The 32-year-old, who has five World Championship victories to her name on the track, is the first major name confirmed for the elite women’s race.
The 32-year-old, who has five World Championship victories to her name on the track, is the first major name confirmed for the elite women’s race.
Dibaba has twice appeared in London before and has improved with each performance.
She made her marathon debut in London in 2014, finishing third in 2:20:35 before returning last year and coming second behind Mary Keitany in an Ethiopian record of 2:17:56, putting her third on the world all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe and Keitany.
She returned to the track last summer to win a silver medal in the 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 before picking up her first marathon win at the Chicago Marathon in October (2:18:31).
That victory put her joint top of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM) Series XI leaderboard which started with last year’s Virgin Money London Marathon and concludes after this year’s race, counting the results of the World Championship marathon plus the marathons in Berlin, Chicago, New York, Tokyo and Boston in between.
A win for Tirunesh in London this year will ensure she would secure the AWMM Series XI title.
