Eritrean-Swedes husband & wife team win men’s & women’s title known as “The summer classic Trosa Stadslopp”
An inspiring sports story as married couple Samuel Tsegay and Samrawit Mengsteab won the male and female 36th edition of Trosa Stadslopp. Both running couple once represented Eritrea. Many of us remember Samuel as he dominated the running scene alongside of his Eritrean team in the past decade and half. Samuel recently moved to Sweden to be with his wife Samrawit Mengesteab who was born in Eritrea but made her career as a top Swedish runner eventually being chosen for the Swedish national team. Like Alexander Isak Sweden once again gains a great duo as Samuel Tsegay by virtue of his marriage to an Eritrean-Swede he has become a citizen after living and fulfilling all his obligations. No matter what Eritrea never goes out of any Eritrean’s heart and in many discussions with Samuel his continued love for his home country Eritrea is always a burning desire that can never be exchanged for anything else. Meanwhile the race is a popular shorter distance event that attracts strong runners. The competition takes place during the weekend right after midsummer every year in the town of Trosa, just south of Stockholm . The race covers an unusual distance of 8.9 kilometers and often attracts a very strong starting field at the elite level. The race has been nominated on several occasions as one of the top races in Sweden and the greater Stockholm area.
In this race another Eritrean-Swede Adhanom Abraha who is 46 years old finished the race a close 4th place. Adhanom too was a former Eritrea national team runner. Samuel finished his race with a time of 25.51, while Samrawit finished hers with a time of 30:14. Both Samuel and Samrawit will now prepare for the European Championships taking place in August 2022. Congratulations to both running family team as they inspire many through their hard work and dedication. Eri-internationalsports is proud of their achievements.
As ever, Great and inspiring story by Eri-Int’l but my fear is that excessive glorification without the appropriate criticism of the naked controversy behind changing one’s allegiance, might encourage others to follow the same route as a fashion…. Eritrea, with its meagre resources, coupled with a decade long illegal sanctions imposed on it while deliberately held hostage to No-peace No-war situations and it’s economy undermined, it’s security threatened, yet it never stopped investing in its youth in terms of developing their talent and supporting them to be successful…… Though I’m sure most of the athletes understand their responsibilities and the importance of the public finance invested for their success, it’s always good to emphasis and remind them to repay back the people and government that got them to where they are today….. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy in their success and will continue to support them morally but again we have to think of reversing the talent drain(like reversing the brain drain)…..
Agreed and after a long discussion with Samuel it made sense for him to be united with his wife. It is also imperative to understand that since there are limited amounts of running for the olympics or international events representing Eritrea, it made sense for him to utilize his Swedish wife’s citizenship to jump on board on an already established national program. Thank you for your thoughts and the plan is to bring Eritreans in the diaspora to represent Eritrea while we also empower Eritreans inside Eritrea to be able to perform at the highest of the world stage. Would love to create a column section for your opinions and thoughts if you allow us. Thank you again for all that you bring to the table.