Saint George and Ethiopian U-17 National team head coach Selam Zeray has been appointed the new boss of the Ethiopian Women’s (Lucy) team. They are getting ready for the 13th African Women’s Cup final qualification and the East African Women’s Championship in Ghana and Rwanda respectively.
The 13th edition Cup final takes place between 26 February and 10 April 2018 in Ghana-Accra. The new boss is likely to call her players to camp mid-February. Ghana automatically qualified as host of the eight nation Cup final while the remaining seven places will be decided during the qualifying rounds.
Saint George is sixth out of ten teams. They have only 4 points from six matches and her tenure as U-17 head coach was underwhelming. Selam’s appointment is being questioned by fellow coaches who believe the appointment did not follow proper procedures.
Lack of consistency is what is Ethiopian Football Federation is famous for. They have forgotten they denied Ethiopia Neged Bank’s Women’s team Coach Berhanu Gizaw the chance to boss Lucy unless the team parted ways with the club duty. However, now Selam Zeray has appeared and is jointly handling the club as well the national team duties.
Selam announced former Ledeta Women’s team Coach Bezuayehu Wada would be her deputy while Ethiopia Bunna Goal Keeping trainer will be Wubeshet Desalegn. Both were with her during her time at the U-17 competition. The coaches will travel throughout the country to watch matches and select players.

Former IAAF Athlete of the Year and World record-holder Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia is back in action on Thursday at the Spanish capital for the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting on February 8.
Genzebe, who last year won the 1000m in Madrid with a national indoor record of 2:33.06, will contest the 1500m at this year’s meeting, the distance at which she holds the world record indoors and out.
The 2015 world champion will line up against 2014 world indoor silver medalist Axumawit Embaye of Ethiopia, European champion Angelika Cichocka of Poland, African silver medalist Malika Akkaoui of Morocco and Spanish duo Solange Andrea Pereira and Marta Perez.
Meanwhile, Adam Kszczot will be aiming to repeat his 800m victory from 2017. The Pole has won five continental titles at the distance – two outdoors and three indoors – and has earned silver medals at the past two World Championships. His indoor PB of 1:44.57 ranks him fourth on the world indoor all-time list.
Ethiopia’s 2013 world champion and two-time world indoor champion Mohamed Aman, who is ranked one place ahead of Kszczot on the world indoor 800m all-time list, will also be in Madrid, along with Spanish record-holder Kevin Lopez, European indoor bronze medalist Alvaro de Arriba, Daniel Andujar and Jesus Gonzalez.

An intricate cold blooded vengeance by head coach Gebremedin Haile over his former club Dedebit’s six match unbeaten run came to an end on Wednesday evening with a magnificent display at Addis Ababa stadium. Not only did they run away with three points from a 2-1 victory but Jimma AbaJifar crushed Dedebit’s far dream of a second title as well frustrating their goal machine Getaneh Kebede, who got a red card.
The visitors took by surprise the over confident Dedebit hammering in the opener through Temesgen G/Kidan followed by the second goal in the 17th minute from a long low drive by former Ethiopia Bunna wing man Yonas Giremew. Not only were there they early goals, the ball domination and the all-out attack; the first half game plan made the home side desperate in every way. “The Blues” were almost oblivious about what to do during the unexpected slaughter. Then there was Getaneh Kebede’s 21st minute red card for elbowing Henok Essayas.
Though a lackluster second half from both sides Dedebit tried to exploit the back tracking of the visitors but to no avail until the hour mark where defender Henok Adugna handed the ball in the box before the referee awarded a penalty to Dedebit and at the same time a red card to Henok.
Dedebit managed sending waves of long balls that made the visitors defense crazy and missed a few scoring chances. Jimma AbaBuna won 2-1 closing the gap to four points against the league leading Dedebit with 25 points from twelve matches.

Organizers of the 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon have confirmed that Tirunesh Dibaba and defending champion Daniel Wanjiru will return to the IAAF Gold Label road race on 22 April.
The 32-year-old Ethiopian, who has three Olympic gold medals and five World Championship victories to her name on the track, is the first major name confirmed for the elite women’s race.
Trunesh has twice appeared in London before and has improved with each performance. She made her marathon debut in London in 2014, finishing third in 2:20:35 before returning last year and coming second behind Mary Keitany in an Ethiopian record of 2:17:56, putting her third on the world all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe and Keitany.
She returned to the track last summer to win a silver medal in the 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 before picking up her first marathon win at the Chicago Marathon in October (2:18:31).
That victory put her joint top of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM) Series XI leader board which started with last year’s Virgin Money London Marathon and concludes after this year’s race, counting the results of the World Championship marathon plus the marathons in Berlin, Chicago, New York, Tokyo and Boston in between. A win for Trunesh in London this year will ensure she would secure the AWMM Series XI title.