By Tomas Ganda 

There just are too many young sports journalists and administrators who probably never heard the name Fekrou Kidane. Yet he was a small-framed man with a giant mind, a selfless individual who gave his all for African dignity, an incredibly generous man, a professional and who in the more than 40 years I knew him I never heard him raise his voice in anger.
I met this man in 1970 in Dar es Salaam, he an accomplished sports writer and broadcaster, me a struggling refugee far away from home trying my hand at sports journalism. I went to the Kilimanjaro Hotel to meet the Ethiopian national football team and instead ran into (then) chain-smoking Fekrou who asked me: “You are from Rhodesia, right?” To which I replied in the affirmative.
“You write basketball very well,” he said. “What are you doing talking to a football team?” And without letting me get in a word in edgeways, he went on to critique African sports journalists for “all wanting to be football writers.” Football may be the most popular sport in Africa but it was not the only sport played and enjoyed by Africans. “Write about other sports, cricket, rugby, about women in netball, hockey…..”
Oh, one other thing, did I have any formal training in writing? Well, I was pursuing a writer’s course with the British Tutorial College. Good, he said. “You also have to learn to organise people. Organise sportswriters in Tanzania and join the African Sports Journalists Union and AIPS, world association of sportswriters.”
And that’s how the Tanzania Sports Writers Association was born with this refugee as its first Secretary General. And that’s how in 1971 I found myself in then West Germany undergoing real training in sports journalism among some of Africa’s giants, Tshimpumpu wa Tshimpumpu from then Cong-Kinshasa, Norman Da Costa from Kenya, Eugene Thompson from Ghana and many others. All organised by Fekrou. Our guide then? A very respectful, soft-spoken, kind, professional young lady called Silvia Renate Sommerlath. We called her “Silvi”. And guess who and where she is now: Queen Silvia of Sweden. That’s who she became.
Fekrou arranged for the best from the group to be back in Munich for the Olympics where instead of reporting about the Greatest Show on Earth, we learnt over night instead how to report a war. BBC were recruiting, and training, the best for their own expanded programmes on Africa and guess who South African producer Peter Lehola picked as his East Africa correspondent for This Sporting Life? Yours truly.
Before the 1974 World Cup in West Germany again, Fekrou was doing his thing, pushing those he thought were his best students, sending us all over the place, me ending up in London being trained by the best of Reuters in the real world of sports writing.
Fekrou never for a moment ceased to be the pan-Africanist that I came to know him as. He was passionate about Africa and the continent’s youth. He was passionate about applying sport to the fight against apartheid and colonialism, particularly in South Africa and Rhodesia. He was associated with the birth of the All African Games in Brazzaville in 1965 primarily to tell the cantankerous IOC president and his lot in Château de Vidy that Africa did not need the Olympic Games. We could do our own thing.
He championed boycotts against the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games, purely because he believed that way pressure was being exerted on the western political powers who supported their kith and kin in southern Africa. He stood side by side with the anti-apartheid sporting giants of the time – Nigeria’s Abraham Odia, Congo-B’s Jean-Claude Ganga, Ethiopia’s Ydnekatchew Tessema, Nigeria’s General Henry Edmund Olufemi Adefope and Sudan’s Dr Abdel Halim Muhammad, among others.
When Juan Antonio Samaranch became President of the IOC in 1980, his administration recognised the injustices perpetuated on blacks. He steered a totally different course, acknowledged that apartheid and racism were evil and accepted that Africans and their supporters had a good case. The unspoken deal was that IOC would openly support human rights causes, open its membership doors to people of colour and women and live true to its motto: to use sport as a tool for peace and development.
So he brought in Fekrou Kidane as the first director of colour in IOC administration with a specific brief to realign IOC thinking and actions on development, international relations, refugees, sport and peace and the United Nations. I was disappointed that Fekrou was “joining the enemy”. But so was he in me that I was abandoning ship to take up full time flying in Fort Worth, Texas and in Tanzania. For a few years I instructed quality students some of who ended up flying for Pakistan International Airways and Scandinavian Air Systems as well as checking out colleagues from Olympic Airlines. I flew VVIP passengers in Zimbabwe and across the region before coming back, all be it slowly, to writing again and sports administration.
Fekrou was always going to be around, but now having given up smoking. When we linked up again he was still the pan-Africanist that he always had been, abhorring corruption, poor administration in African sport, selfish leadership and the bambazonke (grab all) attitude of many African political leaders.
He eschewed the situation is his beloved Ethiopia, always talking about how politicians were busy destroying ancient civilisation. “A bunch of them are just murderers,” he would say about successive regimes in his country, sometimes too loudly and too publicly that going back to Addis Ababa presented dangers to his very life.
Fekrou was the epitome of frugality. At the IOC where directors drove brand new Mercs of choice every year, Fekrou stuck to public transport. Having divorced ages before, he lived for his now grown up son, his only child. For ten years he lived in his hotel room in the Continental across the road from the Lausanne railway station. In Paris he owned a first floor apartment that he shared, like in Lausanne, with his bottles of Bordeaux, magazines, books and a computer.
I made it a habit of spending evenings with him during my regular visits to Paris, having dinner at his favourite restaurants, always preceded by a glass of Bordeaux (for him) at the corner bar a café Chien qui Fume (Smoking Dog).
Fekrou will be remembered by us, his students, his disciples as the mentor who was happy to pass on his vast experience in sports writing, broadcasting and administration. By the time of his passing Fekrou had slowly receded into the background, watching and writing his thoughts, unfortunately mostly in his native Amharic. Some, like the AIPS, remembered him and recognised him as the icon that made AIPS the power that it is today…..and honoured him accordingly.
I’m struggling to remember African organisations of substance that truly honoured him for his massive contribution to what we in Africa aspire to be, or are today.
Rest in Power, Cool Guy. You ran your race well.

A remembrance of Fekrou Kidane, through the eyes of Zimbabwean sports journalist powerhouse, Tomas Ganda

Kenenisa Bekele made headlines last week by declaring “of course I am the best” long distance runner ever. But the Ethiopian was fifth-best at London Marathon, finishing 74 seconds behind Kenya’s Amos Kipruto.
Kenenisa, 40, clocked 2:05:53, the fastest-ever marathon by a runner 40 years or older. He was with the lead pack until being dropped in the 21st mile. But Kenenisa estimated he could have run 90 to 120 seconds faster had he not missed parts of six weeks of training with hip and joint injuries.
“I expect better even if the preparation is short,” he said. “I know my talent and I know my capacity, but really I couldn’t achieve what I expect.”
Bekele is the second-fastest marathoner in history behind Kenya’s Eluid Kipchoge, who his own world record. by clocking 2:01:09 at the Berlin Marathon last week.
“I am happy when I see Eliud Kipchoge run that time,” Kenenisa said. “It motivates all athletes who really expect to do the same thing.”
Kenenisa’s best time was within two seconds of Kipchoge’s previous world record (2:01:39). He described breaking Kipchoge’s new mark as the “main goal” for the rest of his career.
“Yes, I hope, one day it will happen, of course,” Kenenisa said. “With good preparation, I don’t know when, but we will see one more time.”
Nobody has won more London Marathons than Kipchoge, a four-time champion who set the course record (2:02:37) in 2019. But the two-time Olympic marathon champion did not run this year in London, as elite marathoners typically choose to enter one race each spring and fall.
Kenenisa does not know which race he will enter in the spring. But it will not be against Kipchoge. “I need to show something first,” Kenenisa said. “I need to run a fast time. I have to check myself. This is not enough.”
Kipchoge will try to become the first runner to win three Olympic marathon titles at the Paris Games. Bekele, who will be 42 in 2024, has not committed to trying to qualify for the Ethiopian team.
“There’s a long time to go before Paris,” Bekele said. “At this moment I am not decided. I have to show something.” So who is the greatest long distance runner ever?
Kenenisa can make a strong case on the track:
Kenenisa
Four Olympic medals (three gold)
Six World Championship medals (five gold)
Former 5000m and 10,000m world-record holder
Kipchoge
Two Olympic medals
Two World Championship medals (one gold)
But Kipchoge can make a strong case on the pavement:
Kenenisa
Second-fastest marathoner in history
Two World Marathon Major victories
Kipchoge
Four of the five best marathon times in history
Two-time Olympic marathon champion
12 World Marathon Major victories

At the third and final October edition of the TCS London Marathon, Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw used powerful late-race surges to win Europe’s largest marathon in 2:17:26. Yehualaw, 23, became the race’s youngest-ever winner, and got her first-ever Abbott World Marathon Majors victory along with USD 55,000 in prize money plus time bonuses.
Yalemzerf was joined at that point by compatriots Sutume Asefa Kebede, Ashete Bekere, Alemu Megertu and Hiwot Gebrekidan, while Kenyans Judith Jeptum Korir and Joyciline Jepkosgei were also there. Joan Melly Chelimo, who formerly represented Kenya but now runs for Romania, filled out the leading group.
In the 33rd kilometer Yehualaw was running at the back of the pack, and as she went through a crosswalk she suddenly fell (it wasn’t clear why). She quickly got to her feet and in less than a minute rejoined the lead pack. She didn’t appear to be injured; her running form looked normal and there were no visible scrapes or cuts.
Without question, Yehualaw was still trying for Keitany’s record in the final two kilometers, but she just ran out of time. Her winning mark of 2:17:26 was the third-fastest ever at London behind only Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 from 2003 and Keitany’s 2:17:01 from 2017.
Jepkosgei got second in 2:18:07 and Megertu third in 2:18:32. Korir –who won the silver medal at the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene last July, and originally planned to be a pacemaker here– was fourth in 2:18:43. Melly got fifth in 2:19:57.
Although she didn’t win the USD $355,000, her total payday (not including her appearance fee or any private bonuses her management negotiated with the race) was a solid USD $205,000 ($55,000 for the win plus $150,000 for breaking 2:17:30).
It’s remarkable that Yehualaw has only run two marathons. She made her debut in Hamburg last April, and her mark of 2:17:23 was the fastest-ever by a debutante.

Group (A) favorites Ethiopia turned out the first team to exit the 2022 CECAFA U-17 Cup final after losing both the group stage matches.
What is most surprising is that of World Youngest nation South Sudan and little known Somalia are East African representatives in African nations U-17 Cup final to be held in host nation Algeria.
The shocking part of the story is that of the early elimination of hosts Ethiopia after two successive defeats at the hands of group minnows Somalia followed by a 3-2 defeat by Tanzania on Thursday.
The Ethiopian was considered the group favorite for playing in front of home supporters. But a poor performance from Head Coach Tadios Teklu’s young talents, Somalia managed to secure a 1-0 historic victory in the opening match.
Many expected the side to fare better in the second match against well organized Tanzania. But once again the home side failed to win the decisive match thus kicked out of the tournament with two defeats out of two.
Ethiopia entered the game in search of a win to secure a slot into the semi final. But the diehard Tanzanians managed to the final minutes winning goal to progress to the semi final with 3-2 score line.
Though the responsibility laid on young Coach Tadios and his assistants is considered too heavy to carry out, Ethiopia as a host nation should have at least make it into the cup final.
Poor preparation, the so called age cheat at the time of team selection and failure to drive the players to commitment like the young talents of Somali and Sudan, Ethiopia lost a golden home chance of having a place in a n international fixtures.
To tell the truth I got not the first, not the second but the third best players because of the MRI result” remarked frustration clearly written all over his face Tadios Teklu.