Munich. In early June, Samuel Tsegai, 34, was granted Swedish citizenship after several years of waiting.
Now he steps up to the European Commission in the hope of a blue-yellow medal.
– I will try to fight for a medal, he tells Sportbladet.
Long-distance runner Samuel Tsegay was born and raised in Eritrea, but has been living in Sweden since summer 2018.
He is married to EC cross-country bronze medalist Samrawet Mingstep, who took Swedish citizenship in 2017, and the couple’s children were born in Sweden.
Samuel Tsegai himself had to wait.
“very happy”
In fact, he has given up several tournaments in recent years in order not to break the three-year period required to change national teams.
Now, the wait is over.
On June 2, he was approved as a Swedish citizen and on June 27, the International Association of Athletics Federations gave him the green light to compete for Sweden.
– I’m so glad it was resolved. I was hoping to take part in the Olympics last year, but I was a bit lucky and it didn’t work out. Tsigai says, I have waited so long.
He has a medal chance
Now there may be an additional medal for the national team Kajsa Bergqvist.
Samuel Tsegae is a medal candidate in the men’s marathon, which will now be decided on Monday.
His personal best, 2:06.53, which he set in April last year, is three minutes better than Mostafa Mohamed’s Swedish record.
Considering over the past two years, only two EC participants ran faster: Spain’s Iyad Lamdasine (2:06.25) and Germany’s Petros Amanal (2:06.27).
This is after another Spaniard, Hamid bin Daoud (2:06.35), had to withdraw from the European Commission due to injury.
– I’m in good shape and I’ll try to fight for a medal. We’ll see how the race goes, but I’ll try, says Samuel Tsegai.
The men’s marathon starts at 11.30 this Monday.
