Visit the new AsenaTv Website

https://asenatv.com

America’s Meb Keflezighi Wins An Emotional Boston Marathon

by BILL CHAPPELL April 21, 201412:11 PM ET   In the men's field of the 118th Boston Marathon, American Meb Keflezighi ended a 31-year drought for U.S. runners, after holding off Wilson Chebet of Kenya in a race that came

by BILL CHAPPELL

April 21, 201412:11 PM ET

 

In the men’s field of the 118th Boston Marathon, American Meb Keflezighi ended a 31-year drought for U.S. runners, after holding off Wilson Chebet of Kenya in a race that came down to the final mile.

According to race officials, Keflezighi, 38, ran a 4:56 split at mile 23, when he built a 20-second lead. That lead dwindled as the runners neared the finish line, but Keflezighi held off all challengers to win the race with an unofficial finishing time of 2:08:37.

The crowd roared as the Eritrean-born runner who lives in San Diego crossed the finish line, celebrating a much-needed victory in the historic race.

Before today, no American had finished first in the men’s field since Gregory Meyer won in 1983. The last American woman to win was Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985.

 

It was an emotional scene as the crowd and the runner realized that, yes, this was actually happening: a U.S. man was winning by websave\\022 “”>the Boston Marathon. Keflezighi broke the tape near the site of a makeshift memorial to the four people who died because of last year’s bombing attack on the race.

Holding his trophy as the U.S. national anthem played, Keflezighi’s face was contorted with emotion, tears streaming down his face.

“We are resilient; we never gave up,” he said after the race. “My whole run is to run strong — Boston strong, Meb strong.”

Keflezighi also said that he was aware he was being chased neared the finish line.

“If somebody beat me,” Keflezighi recalls thinking, “I’m going to inspire others to do it.”

Instead, the man whose family immigrated to the U.S. after fleeing violence in Eritrea in the 1980s has inspired others, by winning the race outright.

Source: http://www.npr.org/

aseye.asena@gmail.com

Review overview
44 COMMENTS
  • Semhar April 22, 2014

    Thank you for representing and raising the flag of the land of the free and the home of the brave the USA.

    Thank you for not raising Isayas’s flag, the flag, which has no meaning other than representing the tyrant mad dog Isayas and his blind followers the PFDJ. 


  • Semhar April 22, 2014

    Thank you for caring Eritrean victims in your heart during the Boston Marathon win.
    Thank you for representing and raising the USA flag!
    And thank you, thank you for raising the Eritrean Liberation flag on your head!
    God bless USA, ERITREA and YOU our HERO!

  • fetsum abrahamt April 22, 2014

    Congratulations Meb;
    People like you and our best cyclists and runners are the only ones keeping our hope about Eritrea. Thank you for giving us this wonderful gift at this rough moment in the go. Meb: you should also protest in public about the disaster at home. You can be a good asset of the resistance for democracy in our country. God bless u!

  • tesfom Haileab April 22, 2014

    Success is just normal for Eritreans.

    Congratulations MEB !

    We are very proud of you.

  • nadia April 22, 2014

    Congratulation brother, good job, god bless.

  • B e l e n April 22, 2014

    Meb Keflezighi , Congratulation!!!Such amazing race, Great job Meb. Thank you Meb. God bless you and your entire family. i was waiting to see this result Meb, and showed the world and your country. You are Eritrean American. you described the race and inspire the world. Eritrean are proud of you. i am speechless!!! Great interview, great speech!!! congratulation million times.

  • selamawit2 April 22, 2014

    Ladies, Gentlemen,

    i have uncanny feeling due to the style of argumentation some individuals in this forum are using to convince us we (the Eritreans)

    -were slaves and low-grade

    – deserve the recent disaster (dictatorship, human trafficking, thievery of our organs, perishing as “boot-people”, rape and torture in Senai etc.)

    – our fathers/mothers/brothers/sisters… who have been disseized, tortured, killed and giving away to Russians as living subjects of experiment were valueless and had no right to resist the tyranny of Ethiopian governments

    -therefore “Ghedli” as the epitome of resistance again the tyranny of Ethiopian governments
    were (100%!!!) rubbishy

    Their tricky line of argument goes this way:

    a) Slavery/Colonialism = evil
    b) Eritreas current political situation = evil
    c) (As a former colony) Eritrea per se means Slavery/Colonialism = evil
    -> d) everyone who stands for a sovereign State of Eritrea = evil = slave

    Please don’t be bewildered by this rhetoric – it is only a a cheap try to make you feel useless and to make you accept every bashing and to even kiss the feet of the ones who are bashing you…
    their arguments sometimes sound like they would follow a formal logic, but they don’t and much, much less a valid content…

    p.s. we shouldn’t mistake these kind of persons with those real existent(!) people of Ethiopia who feel with us and who care for us! The ones who care for us will always try to empower us but not at all to make us feel worthless…

    We are really facing a heavy fight:
    HGDF on one side and old-habit Ethiopianist, who would still love to annex Eritrea again on the other side…Like vultures they curcuit our poor people and jump at those one who are too week to defend/understand their selves…
    The worst of them are those who pretend to be some of us – don’t let them fool you!

    • WaEro April 22, 2014

      Selamawit2,

      This shouldn’t bother you at all.
      It is only one person changing names, SYE, Cow face, regret, ghideon etc. It is just because he was badly hurt by some Eritreans in the past and thus he is taking his anger out. I do not know what they did to him. He tells us he is an Eritrean and is unhappy (making fun) about Meb’s amazing success.
      I have friends from Tgrai but they are not like him. I have a great respect for them. He is different.

      Please allow him to take his anger out and do not waste your time to respond. He tries to divert the topic of discussion which is important for us.

      • selamawit2 April 22, 2014

        Dear WaEro, Dear Eritreawit,

        as a matter of principle i didn’t wanted to prejudge him/them but what you are saying really makes a lot of sense.
        I also see hate, disrespect and a very freezing cold fury against our people in those postings…
        And like you said it WaEro, I won’t do our enemies the favor and mistake him/them for a normal Ethiopians as the Ethiopians are our brothers and sisters – our most important neighbors.

    • Eritreawit April 22, 2014

      YOU are correct.
      SACH AS; SYE RIGHT? I KNOW YOU WILL DISCOVER THIER HIDDEN MOTIVE Selamawit2.

  • selamawit2 April 22, 2014

    VERY GREAT – CONGRATULATIONS MEB KEFLEZIGHI, CONGRATULATIONS ALSO TO US.
    SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

  • Eritreawit April 22, 2014

    Congradulations MEB, we are so proud of you . USA, USA , USA, USA—-EREITREA, ERETREA —– GO MEB, GO MEB. What a great news.

  • kibreab April 23, 2014

    BEJEKAY BEJEKA ISEYAS KALEE SEEBB HUU-BUUBB SEEB YELON KISEIME DEIMA YEBEILUN EYYU ETTEI GUDAYY.MESAKIEN 1. YEMANE TEKESTE KORSATERE BISHKILETA 2. YOWHANES ZEMIKAEL FOOTBALER . HUBUBBAT KOYNOMM SEEBB KEYSEIBOMM EZZEIII KUFEUUU SEEBB . QETEILUWO. BEIGERHHII KELLOO SEEBB . SEEBB ZEIKETEILLL .KIGOHAFFF EYYYUUU . RESSAAA NATEUU AB MAYBELLA KIGUHAFFF EYYUUU.

Post a Reply to selamawit2 Cancel Reply