Alemayehu Bezabeh
 Bezabeh at the 2009 European Cross Country Championships |
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| Medal record | ||
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| Men's athletics | ||
Representing  Spain
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| European Cross Country Championships | ||
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2008 Brussels | Team |
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2009 Dublin | Individual |
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2009 Dublin | Team |
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2013 Belgrade | Individual |
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2013 Belgrade | Team |
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2015 Hyères | Team |
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2014 Samokov | Team |
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2015 Hyères | Individual |
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2014 Samokov | Individual |
Alemayehu Bezabeh Desta (Amharic: አለማየሁ በዛበህ ደስታ; born c. 1986) is an Ethiopian-born athlete who represents Spain internationally. He competes in middle- and long-distance running on the track, and also in cross country. His brother, Sisay Bezabeh, is also a professional runner and represents Australia internationally.
In December 2010 Alemayehu Bezabeh was arrested as part of Operation Galgo, an investigation by the Spanish Guardia Civil into an alleged doping ring among athletes in Spain, having been caught red-handed carrying a bag of his own blood for a blood transfusion.
Born in Addis Ababa, Alemayehu Bezabeh arrived in Spain in 2004 via plane and stayed in the country as an illegal immigrant, sleeping outdoors and dreaming of becoming a professional runner. He began living off the winnings of the races he would take part in every week. Following a calf injury, doctors at a hospital in the Community of Madrid discovered that he had no papers and he did not know his date of birth.
X-ray wrist tests revealed him to be over 18 and after some estimations of his age he was given a nominal birthday of 1 January 1986. The test involved examination of the proportions of the individual bones of a wrist; it provides an estimate of biological age of a growing body, but is not informative for an age above 18 (male) when the bone growth saturates. As a result of his strong running skills, Bezabeh was given naturalised citizen status in 2008 to allow him to compete internationally for Spain.
His first major competition for Spain was the 2008 Beijing Olympics and he reached the final of the men's 5000 metres race, taking eleventh place. After a win at the Cross de Atapuerca, he also performed well at the 2008 European Cross Country Championships, finishing in seventh and leading the Spanish team to the gold with the help of Ayad Lamdassem. At the end of the year he won the Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños, finishing ahead of Lamdassem and Kidane Tadese.
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