<\/p>\n
Growing up as a shepherd in Tigray, Ethiopia, Haftu Strintzos, the new Australian marathon record holder lived in an area so remote he didn\u2019t even know running was a sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so remote from everything, I didn\u2019t even know running existed as a sport, like as something professional you could do,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we used to keep active at school, but we had no TV, it wasn\u2019t that kind of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only source of information we had was one of those old Nokia phones, until I was about ten years old.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two years later Haftu moved to Australia with his adopted mother Maria Strintzos, a remarkable woman who worked as an aid worker in Ethiopia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite overwhelming at the time, for someone of my age,\u201d Haftu said of the move to his adopted country.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut luckily my Mum knows me so well, she knew my background and my family have been amazing here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had everything I have needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have lived two lives in a way, and I\u2019m super grateful for all the opportunities\u00a0I\u2019ve gotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider myself a very lucky man.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His story is even more remarkable because after arriving in Australia in 2011 he is the new Australian marathon record holder with a time of 2:06.20, after winning the ASICS Gold Coast marathon last weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is the first Australian to win the event in 20 years.<\/p>\n
A teacher at Oakleigh South Primary School first suggested he had natural talent, and he then joined the Oakleigh Little Athletics Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Learning English and becoming familiar with a new country, running is what set him on his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning helped me connect with people, just getting out and about and meeting amazing people,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy path has been defined by running.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sitting in a cafe in the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh a few days after the win, Haftu is feeling good considering and reflecting on what was an amazing weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe body\u2019s a bit wrecked, but that\u2019s nothing unusual with distance and marathon running,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite proud of myself for the weekend\u2019s performance, and the record is a big bonus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did have the record in the back of my mind, but I wasn\u2019t too concerned about it as I was more focused on getting the best out of myself and my execution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weekend was a bit of a whirlwind; Haftu rubbed shoulders afterwards with Australian marathon legends Rob de Castella and Steve Moneghetti.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gold Coast Marathon was only his fourth ever at that distance, and this time he executed it perfectly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He runs up to 190kms a week, and credits his Adelaide based coach Adam Didyk, Team Tempo and the Victorian Institute of Sport where he trains for part of his success.<\/p>\n
His goal is pretty simple: to get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy plan is to keep working, to improve on the system we have been building with my coach, and ultimately be competitive on the global stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Haftu also credits his family for his success.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost I\u2019m extremely grateful to my family who have been so supportive,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been amazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Luke Dennehy, Australian Athletics<\/p>\n
Posted 10\/7\/2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up as a shepherd in Tigray, Ethiopia, Haftu Strintzos, the new Australian marathon record holder lived in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-790138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}