Israeli team clinches marathon gold at European Athletics Championships

After the race Ayale, who is 30 years old, said to Ynet that he “dedicate[s] my medal to all the people of Israel”.

He added: “I want to say thank you to the people of Israel for giving us the privilege of representing you with honour.”

Ayale completed the race ten seconds behind Amanal Petros of Germany in first place, who achieved the course record.

Left to right: bronze medallist Gashau Ayale (Israel), gold medallist Amanal Petros (German), silver medallist Pietro Riva (Italy) (credit: AP/Morgan Harlow)[Missing Credit]

The two next best Israelis were Tadesse Getahon (2:09:31) in fifth place and Haimro Alame (2:09:45) in eighth.

The two next best German runners after Petros finished in the ninth and tenth spots, giving them a combined time of 6:29:03. Israel’s total time was 6:28:37.

Ayale commented about the race itself: “When I reached the rest of our runners [after initially falling behind the chasing pack], I told them that the fight was between us and the Germans.”

“There were three Israelis in the pack, and I told them this was the time to give everything we had in our legs, and we achieved our goal.”

Ayale was born in Ethiopia to a Beta Israel (Ethiopian-Jewish) family. He moved from the village of Gojem to the city of Gondar at two years old, before making aliyah with his family at 13.

His family settled first in Safed before moving to Jaffa. Ayale attended Abir Yakoob Boarding School in Nahariya and trained for running with Darom Hasmeta Tel Aviv track club on the weekends.

The bronze medallist told Ynet in 2024 that he admired Cristiano Ronaldo “because of his tenacity in making dreams come true” and disclosed that he is a Maccabi Haifa supporter.

In the same interview he mentioned that his grandmother was not allowed to come with the family, because of Israel “claiming that she was not Jewish enough”. He added: “I hope they finally bring her here; it is the dream of the whole family, mine and my mother.”

Until 2021, Ayale “wasn’t sure [he] would be an athlete”, at the time working as a shift supervisor in a supermarket. It was his coach Yosef Gizachew, an Ethiopian-born Israeli former athlete, who convinced him that he “could succeed in athletics”.

Ayale, now a member of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s track club, revealed that a two-month running camp in Ethiopia was the catalyst for his ascent – “it completely changed me,” he said.

Four years ago, he also won bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, which was reportedly only the second time he had run a marathon.

He competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024, and is the current Israeli record holder for the half-marathon with a time of 59:59 achieved in Lisbon last year.

Likewise, fifth-placed Getahon was born in Ethiopia before developing his running career in Israel.

He told Haaretz in 2021 that he was born in a cowshed in a village near Gondar in 1997 and grew up with ambitions of being a shepherd.

They were “the only Jews in the village”, he said. When he and his family emigrated from Ethiopia in 2012, settling in Safed and then later Holon, they reunited with other families who he had not seen for more than a decade, who had already made aliyah.

The 29-year-old only began running due to a sports teacher in school who pushed and believed in him in the tenth grade. He now belongs to the Emek Hefer Athletics Club in central Israel.

He said in the 2021 Haaretz interview that “it is important to me to represent my community, and also my country, with honour”.

Getahon is the current 5,000m Israeli record holder, with a time of 13:16.88 achieved in Belgium last year. He also holds the national record for the 10,000m, running 27:33.99 in London in 2023.

The year before, he was suspended from competition for just over four months by the Israel National Anti-Doping Organisation for three counts of failing to disclose his whereabouts, a common requirement for elite athletes in case they are required to undergo drug testing.

Alame, who came eighth, had another similar journey. He was born in Ethiopia to a Beta Israel family in 1990 and made aliyah in 2004.

The 36-year-old belongs to track club Hapoel Athletic Oren Hasharon, and he has partnered with Jewish organisation Dream Big to tell his story in a book called Dream Big with Haimro Alame, which has been published in Hebrew, Amharic, English, and Spanish.

The story covers his journey to running stardom, which has included appearing at the 2021 Olympics and once holding the 10,000m national record.

Israel’s other three runners in Saturday’s race were Yitayew Abuhay (12th), Maru Teferi (22nd), and Bukayawe Malede (35th). In total, 52 runners completed the race, plus eight non-finishers.

Teferi, 34, is a three-time Olympian and holds the Israeli record for the marathon, running a time of 2:04:44 in Valencia in 2024.

The gold and bronze in the event were Israel’s only two medals at the week-long athletics competition, which was held in Birmingham and ended on Sunday.

It takes place every two years; the marathon is not contested in years when it coincides with the Olympics.