Ameyu Etana
Saturday January 7, 2023
Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, 37, is due to resume racing after a four-year break
Ethiopian athlete Tirunesh Dibaba, a three-time Olympic and five-time world champion in long-distance running, is set to return to running after the birth of her third child.
It had been widely assumed that she had retired.
Tirunesh, 37, is due to make a comeback in the Houston Half Marathon scheduled for 15 January.
“Houston is a famous race and my training has been going well,” she said in a press release.
“It seems the best way to test myself and see what could happen next.”
The top athlete raced for the last time in 2018 where she finished third in a 10km road race in Spain.
Her husband Sileshi Sihine, who is an athlete-turned businessman, told the BBC that Tirunesh had given birth twice since 2018.
Tirunesh and her siblings are together regarded as the world's fastest family with five of them recorded as the only siblings in history to hold concurrent world records.