Bejiga and Abreha deliver Ethiopian sweep at the 2026 tRUNsylvania 10K

Ethiopian runners dominated the 2026 tRUNsylvania 10K with Khairi Bejiga and Asefu Abreha coming home victorious in the Romanian city of Brasov on Sunday.

Bejiga, still just 20, became the first runner, man or woman, to win back-to-back titles in the six editions of the tRUNsylvania 10K with a dominant performance almost from gun to tape.

He led the 12-strong leading group through the first half of the race in 13:32 and then kept the tempo high with successive sixth and seventh kilometres of 2:42 and 2:40, which led to several runners drifting off the back of the pack.

Five men were still together just after 8km – Bejiga, his compatriot and training partner Nibret Kinde, fellow Ethiopian Ayele Tadesse, Kenya’s Amos Bett and Uganda’s Kenneth Kiprop – passed in 21:44, but a couple of hundred metres down the road there was drama as Kiprop, one of the race favourites, tripped and fell before stumbling home 11th

Despite the distraction, Bejiga kept up his remorseless pace at the front. A ninth kilometre of 2:41 saw Bett and then Tadesse slip back and out of contention for the win.

However, reigning Ethiopian 10,000m champion Kinde refused to throw in the towel in the battle for the $5000 first prize.

It took until the final two hundred metres before Bejiga, arms pumping like an 800m runner, finally managed to put daylight between himself and Kinde, the pair crossing the line in 27:01 and a big personal best of 27:02 respectively.

“I was hoping the first half of the race was going to be quicker, but nobody wanted to go faster,” said Bejiga through an interpreter, who repeatedly indicated that others should help with the pace. “I was looking for a course record and personal best [which, coincidentally, are the same time of 26:51].”

Having finished full of running, Bejiga is now focussing on running a very quick time at the Valencia Half Marathon on 25 October, having only one outing over the distance in a rather modest 1:02.04.

Tadesse took 30 seconds off his best in third place with 27:10, while Bett was just two seconds shy of his best with 27:13.

Further back, Hani Idriss Herso set a Djibouti national record of 27:13 in fifth place while France’s Meziane Benhammou notably set a European U18 best of 28:39, taking 14 seconds off the previous mark, when coming home 18th.

Another Ethiopian clean sweep of the podium came a little earlier in the morning in the women’s race but, instead of one of the race favourites taking the honours, there was an upset win for another 20-year-old, Asefu Abreha.

Abreha came to Brasov with little international experience, although she had taken the African Championships 10,000m bronze medal earlier in the year.

Her only previous 10km on the roads was a modest 31:32 in challenging conditions in Bengaluru, India in April.

However, she looked like a seasoned veteran as she came home in front of many much more experienced runners with strong race credentials, crossing the line in a massive personal best of 30:16.

A relatively slow first half of the race, partially thanks to the cool conditions with the temperature only 8 degrees Celsius when the gun was fired – with 3km passed in 9:06 and then 5km in 15:11 – meant that from the early stages of the race the course record of 30:07 seemed unlikely to be beaten.

Seven women went through 5km together but over the next kilometre Abreha and her fellow Ethiopians Aynadis Mebratu and 19-year-old Yenenesh Shimket started to edge away from their rivals.

Mebratu pushed the pace from 7km onwards in a bid to shake off her compatriots, but it took until the trio entered the last kilometre before Shimket started to struggle.

As Shimket got detached, Abreha decided it was time to throw down the gauntlet to Mebratu before producing a decisive second surge with around 200 metres to clinch victory.

Behind Abreha, Mebratu came home second in 30:19 while Shimket took third in a world U20 10km best of 30:21.

After the leading trio, there were national records for Djibouti’s Samia Hassan Nour and South Africa’s Tayla Kavanagh in fourth and fifth place, the latter running her own race, having been 18 seconds back from the leading group at the halfway mark, with the pair clocking 30:37 and 30:50, respectively.

Results

Men

Women

Abbreviations: NR — National Record; WU20B — World Under-20 Best.

Full results of the elite races at the 2026 tRUNsylvania 10 K, a World Athletics Elite Label Road Race, can be seen here.