Thousands of professional and amateur long-distance runners on Sunday converged on the streets of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa for the annual 10km “Great Run”. Now in its 16th year, the event saw over 40,000 registrations despite a 6-month state of emergency declared in October following violent anti-government protests. Relatively new athletes Abe Gashahun and Foiteyn Tesfaye – both Ethiopian nationals – came first in the men and women categories respectively. Organizers said the state of emergency did have an effect, though insignificant, on the number of participants, with many international participants citing security fears. “We had lots of cancellations after the state of emergency but we still managed to get like 250 international runners.

Source: Ethiopian News November 21, 2016 22:57 UTC