Refugee runs to Canadian citizenship

Native Ethiopian wants to put Canada back on marathon map
Martin Cleary, The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Dagne Debela's introduction to the ING Ottawa Marathon in 2004 was a forgettable experience.
After arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just a few days before the race, he had difficulty reaching the downtown start line on time.
When the internationally-ranked marathon runner finally ran under the start banner, he was 10 minutes behind the leaders in what was to become a race record run of two hours 11 minutes 47.4 seconds by Elly Rono of Kenya.
If Debela has made it to the start on time with a proper warmup, he might have finished in the top five and earned some prize money for his wife and two daughters back home.
"I came for the purpose of finishing first," he said earlier this week at the Get Psyched for the Ottawa Race Weekend dinner. "Because I lost that time, I was really upset."
However, competitive road racing has become a lower priority for Debela, who has lived in Ottawa since that race. Instead, his focus has been on working two jobs to save enough money so his wife, Tsehay, and daughters, Yodit, 13, and Sosena, four, can move to Ottawa this summer. He stayed in Canada as a conventional refugee because of "lots of ups and downs in the politics back home."
Once he can be reunited with his family and obtain Canadian citizenship, he hopes to put his new country back on the map for men's marathon running. Canada hasn't had a world-class male marathoner since Jerome Drayton in the 1970s.
It doesn't matter that Debela is 37 and may be 42 by the time he gets citizenship. He feels age is no barrier to fast marathon times.
Debela is considering returning to the Ottawa Race Weekend by running the two-day event's most popular race, the half-marathon, tomorrow.
As of Thursday night, the registration numbers for the 10 races had eclipsed last year's record of 26,224 and were fast approaching 30,000. Two days before tonight's opening MDS Nordion five-kilometre and 10-kilometre races, which start at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively, at the corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue, the registration total was 27,441. In the past, late registrations have added 2,000 to 3,000 runners to those totals. Registration is scheduled to close early this afternoon at Ottawa City Hall.
The half-marathon is the most popular with 7,249 runners, a 26-per-cent increase over last year. The other significant numbers are 6,793 for the 10-kilometre race, 6,097 for the five-kilometre race, 3,573 for the marathon and 2,134 for the two-kilometre run/walk.
The 32nd marathon starts tomorrow at 7 a.m. on Elgin at Laurier.
In his prime, Debela ranked 12th fastest in the marathon in 2000, and he won five international marathons or half-marathons in his career.
He could do that because he was a full-time runner in Ethiopia, training three times a day six days a week. In Canada, though, working two jobs has reduced his training to three evenings a week and produced slower times in a reduced number of distance road races.
If Debela can obtain landed immigrant status and then Canadian citizenship, he hopes to become a full-time runner again, enjoying the benefits of proper nutrition, comfort and training while representing Canada.
"If it's all done for me, it will be long, but age is not a limit," he said. "For the marathon, there is no age (problem).
"My goal is running, and I'm not finished my goal. I have to run, and then I want to teach the youngsters to run. I want to give Canada a big name (in the marathon)."
Defending champions David Cheruiyot of Kenya and Lidia Vasilevskaia of Russia will be among the favourites for tomorrow's marathon.
Cheruiyot will be chased by Kenyan countrymen Ben Kimondiu, the 2001 Chicago Marathon champion, Henry Tarus, Nelson Njeru Ndereva and Rono. Makhosonke Fika of South Africa also is a contender.
Toronto's Lioudmila Kortchaguina will be looking to become the first runner to win the women's race three times. The 2002 and 2004 champion, Kortchaguina missed achieving that goal last year, when she placed second to Vasilevskaia.
Instead, Kortchaguina settled for recognition as the top Canadian two days after she received her citizenship in Toronto.
Kenya's Magdalene Syombua Makunzi will be making her marathon debut, but is expected to be among the leaders.
Jeff Adams of Toronto and Alan Bergman of Vancouver will battle for the Canadian wheelchair marathon championship tomorrow, while Clayton Gerein of Pilot Butte, Sask., and Dean Bergeron of Quebec City are favoured in the quad class.
The CBC will televise highlights of the Ottawa Race Weekend next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Live results for all of the races can be found at www.sportstats.ca.
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