His coach (Wolfgang Heinig) threatens to sue anybody who dares question his age
His coach (Wolfgang Heinig) threatens to sue anybody who dares question his age
Germany and Hessia in particular is full of African runners with (possibly) bogus birth certificates.
Aside from Homiyu who claims to be born 93, there's also Abdi Uya Hundessa and Gutu Abdata Oddee who both claim to be born in 1995. I'm willing to give Tesfaye and Hundessa the benefit of the doubt, having competed (or rather started together with) with both of them. They come across as talented, ambitious and focussed runners who might (or might not) be one or two years older than they claim to be. I guess it's impossible to really find out - I've seen people who are their age and look older.
Gutu on the other hand does definitely not look like he's 18, as can be seen in this picture and by the fact that he apparently has a marathon PB of 2:09.
http://www.patrick-lange.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/20131231trio-01-e1388679964880.jpg
For what it's worth, he so far hasn't competed in junior championships (or any other championships for that matter), so maybe he's aware that he would never pass as 18 and just does what he'd be doing anyway (running), but with a fudged birth certificate.
Kraut wrote:For what it's worth, he so far hasn't competed in junior championships
He did
http://www.hlv.de/ERGEBNISSE/2014/cross.htm#5And by the way. Don't get fooled by the first four names. Thats not an African championship it's the Hessian Cross Country Championship.
sue for having a different opinion?
Der Heinig has probably spent too much time in the US:)
yeah he never talked about his past
same guy wrote:
http://abload.de/img/homiyuvergleichikyfm.jpg
Couple of years of HGH, Clen and T3
Hessian Champs. Top 3 qualify you to help the Colonies fight Britain?
All the "facts" are on the table but nothing will happen.
Ha ha beat me to it. Hessiasn champs, lol. Also, when are the Prussian champs or the Bohemian games?
The guy in the photo in the heats is homiyu tesfaye....you have to be blind to not see the resemblance
Sucker needs to know wrote:
Henok Tesfaye Heyi
http://www.2008.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=52047/bio/index.htmlhttp://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/henok-tesfaye-of-ethiopia-wins-his-heat-in-the-800-metres-news-photo/75362239http://www.istanbulmarathon.org/umbraco/ImageGen.ashx?image=/media/6955/1__7_.jpg&height=400&compression=100(No. 9011
Homiyu Tesfaye
http://www.hlv.de/NEWS/IMAGES/Tesfave-Medaille.jpghttp://www.eintracht-frankfurt.de/fileadmin/upload/sportarten/Leichtathletik/aktuelle_Artikel/news/LA_tesfave_full.jpghttp://www.hna.de/bilder/2013/02/24/2767501/1497616259-florian-orth-26DqhBYl34.jpg
These are differently two different athletes, although they do look somewhat similar and could be related. I am surprised people can't see that there are at least 3 obvious facial features that distinguish these athletes. Btw, this dose not mean this athlete is not an age cheat, when Henok applied for German citizenship, he probably just made up a DOB, which happens a lot.
Tesfaye qualifies through European Indoor Champs 1500m heats after a somewhat ridiculous 54.5 first 400m.
Charlie Grice of GB, winner of second heat, refers to Tesfaye and Osbilen (second in his heat) as "the Africans" in his BBC interview.
Well at least it's not gender fraud....