| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Native name | גואדה אגזה |
| National team |  Israel |
| Born | September 11, 1989 Ethiopia |
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] |
| Weight | 56 kg (123 lb)[1] |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Running |
| Event | Marathon |
| Updated on 10 August 2016. | |
Ageze Guadie (Hebrew: גואדה אגזה; born September 11, 1989) is an Ethiopian-born Israeli Olympic marathon runner.[2][3]
Born in Ethiopia, he is an Ethiopian Jew (Beta Israel) and is the seventh of nine children in his family.[2][4] He made aliya and moved to Israel with his family at age 13, in 2002.[5][2][4] His family lived in an immigrant absorption center in Beersheba, while he went to a boarding school near Hadera.[2]
He served as a technical quartermaster in the Israel Defense Forces.[2] After the army, he worked as a waiter in a cafe, and as a mover.[2] He then became a sports teacher at a school in Netanya, Israel, where he now lives.[2]
He ran for the club Hapoel Emek Hefer, won Under-16 regional and national competitions at middle distances, and at the age of 16 won the Israeli cross country youth championship.[2][4] His mother initially did not want him to compete in running, as she felt it was a difficult sport and she thought he would be too skinny.[2] In 2012, he signed up for physical education studies at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, and trained with Israeli Olympic marathon runner Zohar Zimro.[2]
In December 2015 he came in third with a time of 67:04 in the Israeli championships in the half marathon in Beit She'an, behind Marhu Teferi and Berihun Weve.[2][6] He began to consider running a marathon for the first time, saying "I felt that if I did 21 kilometers in 1:07, I had the second half in my legs. Your gut tells you that you can do it. Go for it. I had faith and courage; it came from the heart."[2]
Guadie completed his first marathon run, at the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands in April 2016, in a time of 2:18:51.[7][8] He came in 27th.[6] His time was the second-best for an Israeli running his first marathon, after Tesama Moogas."[2] He reflected, "This marathon taught me two things: Ability and courage. To believe in yourself and not be afraid, to go for broke, to turn the impossible into the possible."[2]
With his time in the Rotterdam Marathon, which was nine seconds better than the Olympic qualification standard, he qualified for the 2016 Olympics.[2] He competed for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the marathon, and finished 122nd with a time of 2:30:45.[9] At the Seville Marathon in Spain in February 2020, he set his personal best with a time of 2:12:06. During that race, he also set a new personal best in half marathon (1:05:23).
