{"id":42136,"date":"2026-05-12T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42136\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:30:08","slug":"ethiopian-runner-bound-for-ottawa-marathon-dies-suddenly-in-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42136\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian runner bound for Ottawa Marathon dies suddenly in training"},"content":{"rendered":"

The global running community mourns the passing of elite marathoner Yebrgual Melese, who was rushed to a hospital during training on Tuesday. Addis Media Network<\/a> reported medical professionals were unable to save her. No details on the cause of her collapse have been released. Melese was 36 and is survived by her husband and two children.<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian Athletics Federation expressed sadness over the loss, extending condolences to her family, friends, supporters and the entire sports community. Melese had been a persistent presence on the international road-racing scene for more than a decade and was preparing for the Tamarack <\/a>Ottawa Marathon<\/a> on May 24.<\/p>\n

A formidable competitor<\/p>\n

Melese became a member of the elite sub-2:20 women\u2019s club at the 2018 Dubai Standard Chartered Marathon, securing third place with\u00a0a\u00a0personal best<\/a> of 2:19:36. In her career, she was commended for her professionalism, dedication and national pride. Known to sit comfortably in the lead pack and kick for the last 10 km, she was always someone to keep your eye on in the elite field.<\/p>\n

Melese ran the 2015 Brazzaville All-Africa Games, finishing in 1:12:42, and has multiple top-10 finishes at the Abbott World Marathon Majors. She placed second at the 2015 Chicago Marathon and, in the same year, won the Houston Marathon in 2:23:23. Melese took a hiatus from competing from 2020 to 2024. On her return, she recorded an eighth-place finish at the 2024 Berlin Marathon (2:21:39). In March 2025, Melese ran the Zurich Marat\u00f3 Barcelona, finishing second in 2:20:47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The global running community mourns the passing of elite marathoner Yebrgual Melese, who was rushed to a hospital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12969,18419,61,5808,7130,18420],"class_list":["post-42136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-2026-ottawa-marathon","tag-ethiopian-marathoner","tag-ottawa","tag-running-news","tag-training","tag-yebrgual-melese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}