“I didn’t want them to have the same problems I faced as an athlete”

Haji Adilo is a former Ethiopian international marathon runner who recored a personal best of 2:12.24. Haji now coaches some of the country’s top marathon runners including Deriba Merga, Dire Tune, Teyiba Erkesso, and Tilahun Regassa, winner of the 2009 Ethiopian Airlines Great Ethiopian Run.

Q. How did you get into athletics?  
A. I was born in Assela, not far from the village where Haile Gebrselassie was born. As a young runner, I remember training with Haile and other young runners.

Q. What was your best result as an international marathon runner?
A. I competed in the African Marathon Cup in 1996 and finished 6th. Today the event no longer exists.  

Q. What were your other big results?
A. I won the Graz Marathon in Austria two times in 1997 and 1999. In 1999 I ran my personal best time of 2:12.24.

Q. You are now 36 - the same age as Haile. What made you make the move into coaching?
A. I stopped running in 1999 after having complications with a couple of operations on my stomach. I tried to make a comeback in 2003 – I finished 4th in the 2003 Addis Ababa Marathon – but training was getting harder, so finally I decided to become a coach.

Q. What was your motivation to coach runners?
A. When I was a runner, we had lots of problems connected with getting visas to compete abroad. There weren’t many managers around and visa processes were quite strict. When I stopped competing, a few members of my family were starting to train and I did not want them to face the same problems that I encountered. So I started to encourage them to do the marathon because I was a marathon runner myself. Soon I had a small marathon group of five and found a manager for them called Laurent Croun. We worked well together before another manager took our star athlete. Lauren decided to quit, so I looked for another manager and in 2006 started working with Hussein Makke. Now we have a large group of more than 80 runners.

Q. Is it true that some of these runners are your own relatives?
A. Yes, I have four brothers and four sisters who are all runners. In fact, including cousins, wives, and husbands of our family members, the total is around 22! The others in my training group are friends and colleagues. My brother Kassim is a two-time winner of the 2009 Istanbul Marathon, while another brother Hussein improved his personal best to 2:10.65 this year. Kassim’s wife is Teyiba Erkesso who won the 2009 Houston Marathon. My sister Radiya won the 2009 Rome Marathon in a new course record time. Kelil Aman, who is a cousin of mine and a half marathon runner, is the husband of Dire Tune. She has the world record for one-hour. Her friend is Deriba Merga who won Boston this year and also shares the world record for 15km.

Q. That’s an impressive training group…
A. Yes, and it also includes Tilahun Regassa who won this year’s Great Ethiopian Run, Solomon Tsige (winner of 2009 Hamburg Marathon), Lishan Yegezu (second in the 2009 Istanbul Marathon), and Abebu Gelan (world junior half marathon record holder.

Q. Doesn’t it get difficult to coach so many runners?
A. Yes, but also get help from assistants. We train together three times a week in Sululta and Entoto. Runners enjoy training together in big groups and they can learn a lot from each other. There is a good spirit in the group.

Q. What are your hopes for the future?
A. My goal is to produce a medalist or a champion at the highest level.