Norway’s unknown EC hero runs for half-marathon record – VG
Norway’s European Championship silver sensation Zerei Kbrom Mezngi (36) gets a tailor-made plan to set a European half marathon record in Copenhagen in three weeks.
His agent Jasper Buitink tells VG.
– It will be a large group of very strong European and African races, with good opportunities to set a European record. Zerei (Kbrom Mezngi) can take it, he says.
Via his company Arctic Approach Management, Jasper Buitink is also responsible for picking up top runners for the «Copenhagen Half Marathon» on Sunday 18 September. He has the official title of «elite coordinator» for Copenhagen’s half marathon (21 kilometers), which aims to have a fast course.
Zerei Kbrom Mezngi missed a personal record by almost 11 seconds when, to the great surprise of most people, he took 2nd place behind the Italian favorite Yemaneberhan Crippa in the 10,000 meters in the athletics EC in Munich’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday with a time of 27:46.94.
Last year he ran the Copenhagen half marathon in 60 minutes and seven seconds (1.00.07), 19 seconds behind Sondre Nordstad Moen’s Norwegian record of 59.48 from Valencia in 2017. Sondre Nordstad Moen has undergone an operation this summer and is not ready to start in Copenhagen.
The current European record of 59.13 is held by Julien Wanders (26), set in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
The Swiss will also be on the starting line in Denmark’s capital in the middle of next month, together with German Amanal Petros (27), among others. He finished fourth in the marathon (42 kilometers) in the European Athletics Championship a week and a half ago with a time of 2.10.39. In Berlin on April 3, he ran the half marathon in 1.02.21, two minutes and 22 seconds behind Mezngi, who with 1.00.42 – in not very good running conditions – took 5th place behind four Kenyans.
Like Mezngi, Petros was born in Eritrea.
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Mezngi came to Norway 10 years ago. For the past nine to 10 months, he has been training under Asle Tjelta (37). He is the son of the well-known athletics coach Leif Inge Tjelta, who for many years has scientifically followed Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s development.
When Zerei Kbrom Mezngi was accepted into the national team for the Norwegian Athletics Federation last year, it was with a stated goal that he will run the marathon in the Olympics in Paris next year. This is what the association’s sports manager Erlend Slokvik says.
– The goal this year was 10,000 meters. The long-term is really the marathon in the Olympics. But that can change, says Slokvik – who adds that they have not talked about what he Mezngi should bet on when it comes to the athletics WC in Budapest in a year’s time.
Jasper Buitink reveals that Mezngi is on the start list for the marathon in Valencia on December 4. The agent “believes” Norway’s new long-distance hope will be ready for it.
– It might not be a better place to debut at the marathon in Valencia. We have discussed mostly how he can develop into a marathon runner. 10,000 meters is bra, but he is fresh as a runner at top level. We don’t really know how it will end, says Jasper Buitink.