AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award 2012 Presentation

Tiki Gelana Becomes First Female Ethiopian Winner Of The Aims/Asics World Athlete Of The Year Award
The world running organisation the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) and awards sponsor ASICS are delighted to announce Ethiopian athlete Tiki Gelana as the female AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year for 2012.
Today in Marugame, Japan, Gelana’s outstanding achievements in the past year were given global recognition during a presentation after the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon.
President Emeritus of AIMS Hiroaki Chosa and AIMS Board Member and Vice President of the Japanese Athletics Federation Dr Keisuke Sawaki presented Tiki Gelana with the acclaimed Golden Shoe Trophy during an awards ceremony at a media event after the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon, which took place today, Sunday, 3rd February 2013.
Tiki Gelana (25) becomes the first female Ethiopian winner of the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award. She joins her male compatriots Gezahenge Abera (2000) and Haile Gebrselassie (2006, 2007 & 2008) in winning this prestigious award.
She started 2012 with a runaway win and personal best of 1:08:48 in the Marugame Half Marathon but that was just a warm-up for a decisive 5-minute victory in Rotterdam, where she became the fifth woman ever to break 2:19 for the Marathon. The following week Mary Keitany won the London Marathon in the only faster time posted during the year, but when both went to London for the Olympic Games Marathon it was Gelana who triumphed. Despite an early fall she stayed in the ever dwindling group until, with 4km left, she made a strong push for the finish, persisting even when it seemed it was to no effect. Only in the final kilometre did she start to edge ahead of her three remaining rivals, crossing the line in a new Olympic record of 2:23:07. She further improved her half marathon best to 1:07:48 in finishing third on the "assisted" course of the Great North Run in September.
The AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Awards were founded in 1992 and are decided each year from nominations made by the 350 member races of AIMS. Previous female winners include Liz McColgan (GBR), Uta Pippig (GER), Tegla Loroupe (KEN), Naoko Takahashi (JPN), Catherine Ndereba (KEN), Paula Radcliffe (GBR), Mizuki Noguchi (JPN), Lornah Kiplagat (NED), Constantina Dita (ROM) and Mary Keitany (KEN).
AIMS President Paco Borao comments: “I am delighted that AIMS can recognise this fantastic athlete with the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award. Tiki demonstrated excellent form in 2012 culminating in her magnificent Gold Medal winning performance at the London Olympic Games. It is with great pleasure we recognise her achievements on behalf of the 350 members of AIMS in over 95 countries throughout the world. I would like to give special thanks to everyone involved in the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon who made this presentation possible as part of this fantastic event.”

Tiki Gelana comments: “To be named as AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year is a fantastic honour. To see my name alongside such legendary names in the sport is an incredible feeling. I would like to also extend my thanks to AIMS for their support and all sponsors who make this prestigious award possible.”


AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Awards Information Page

The AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Awards were founded in 1992 and are decided each year by way of nominations made by the members of the world body The Association of International Marathons & Distance Races (AIMS) member races. The membership totals some 310 races in over 95 countries covering every continent of the world.
A male and female winner is recognised each year for their outstanding athletic achievement and as ambassadors for their sport and country.
The award is sponsored by sports company ASICS and each winner is awarded a golden ASICS shoe.

Winners To Date

AIMS/ASICS WORLD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD 2012 - ATHLETE BIOGRAPHY

Tiki Gelana

Born on 22nd October 1987 Gelana ran what is still her current road best for 10km in 2007, with 31:54 in Japan, followed up the next year with a track best of 31.28 for 10,000m in Ostrava. But she first registered in the marathon with a fourth place in Dublin only a little over two years ago (Oct 2010) where she crept inside 2.5 hours with 2:29:53. From then her performance followed a steep upward trajectory. A year later she radically improved her Marathon time to 2:22:08 in winning in Amsterdam, which placed her 7th on the end of year list.

She started 2012 with a runaway win and personal best of 1:08:48 in the Marugame Half Marathon but that was just a warm-up for a decisive 5-minute victory in Rotterdam, where she became the fifth woman ever to break 2:19 for the Marathon. The following week Mary Keitany won the London Marathon in the only faster time posted during the year, but when both went to London for the Olympic Games Marathon it was Gelana who triumphed. Despite an early fall she stayed in the ever dwindling group until, with 4km left, she made a strong push for the finish, persisting even when it seemed it was to no effect. Only in the final kilometre did she start to edge ahead of her three remaining rivals, crossing the line in a new Olympic record of 2:23:07. She further improved her half marathon best to 1:07:48 in finishing third on the "assisted" course of the Great North Run in September.

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AIMS HISTORY

AIMS was firmly established in May 1982 with its first Congress in London. Informal discussions had been held over the previous two years amongst some of the world's leading marathon race directors with a view to setting up such an association. Meetings were held in New York, Honolulu and other venues prior to the formal meeting in London.

AIMS was initially established with the idea of providing a forum for the exchange of ideas that would help to improve each attending director's race. However, once it was decided to write Articles of Association it was found necessary to go beyond just the exchange of ideas and to set some basic rules to govern the association and membership.

As stated in Article Two of the Association:

The objectives of the Association shall be to:

a) Foster and promote distance running throughout the world.
b) Work with the International Association of Athletic Federations on all matters relating to international road races, and
c) Exchange information, knowledge and expertise among the members of the Association.

From those beginnings thirty years ago AIMS has made remarkable progress.

At the 5th World Congress in 1989 in Melbourne, Australia, membership was extended beyond just marathons to all road races. Membership was further extended at the 16th World Congress of AIMS in March 2007 held in Xiamen, China to explicitly include races held off-road. Through a partnership with agencies of the Greek national government AIMS opened a permanent headquarters at the spiritual home of the Marathon in November 2011, within the Olympic Complex in Athens. From this date OPAP-VisitGreece has become the Patron of AIMS

AIMS has firmly established itself as the major force behind the development and progress of distance running throughout the world. From an initial membership of 28 in 1982, it has grown to over 310 member events in over 95 countries and territories including most of the world's premier marathons and many other major road races.

Course measurement methods and standards established by AIMS have been recognised by the IAAF who have adopted the AIMS system as its own standard.

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AIMS has recognised the world's fastest times on the road and successfully proposed the criteria that have been officially adopted by the IAAF for the verification of World Records.

IAAF and AIMS co-operate on matters relating to doping control and the holding of course measurement seminars in various parts of the world. "Distance Running" is a quarterly magazine published jointly that goes out to some 400,000 runners worldwide.

Starting from 2012 OPAP-Visit Greece has become AIMS’ Patron. The presenting partner of AIMS is MYLAPS, a company that has led innovation in chip timing for road running. ASICS Corporation has been Sports Partner of AIMS for many years and they have worked together in a most harmonious and productive way, establishing initiatives such as the 'AIMS/ASICS Athletes of the Year Awards'. Sports Drink Partner Lucozade and other partners of AIMS, Citizen Watch Company, Konica-Minolta, Rohm Semiconductor, Marathon-Photos.com, Pole Position, Valencia Tourism Agency and 1000km Promotions have all been very closely involved in assisting the development of the sport of distance running throughout the world.

AIMS is also committed to social initiatives such as the AIMS Children Series, the AIMS Museum of Running and the AIMS Marathon Symposium.

For Further Information on AIMS please visit the AIMS Web site: www.aimsworldrunning.org

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