Misgana Wakuma celebrates at the Caixa World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Brasília 26 (© World Athletics 
Oscar Munoz Badilla)
Misgana Wakuma won a fabulous half marathon silver at the Caixa World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Brasília 26 – Ethiopia’s first global race walking medal.
His runner-up placing in Brazil was also the highest finish by an African athlete in the history of the World Race Walking Team Championships.
Just over a month later, he retained his African 20km race walk title in Accra in a national record of 1:18:47.
He did so without having his own coach. In a world where it’s standard for top athletes to get direction, the 21-year-old says he goes it alone. That’s not to say he wouldn’t like outside help. In fact, if someone suitable were to come along, Wakuma would welcome the approach.
“There are some young people working with me,” he said. “We are working together, but I want to work with a coach in the future. Maybe, if I find one, we will meet three days a week. Then we will work according to our abilities.”
No one doubts the race walker’s ability.
Wakuma’s steady inroads on elite fields since switching from running five years ago is evident.
As a 17-year-old he clocked an impressive 42:33.0 to win the 10,000m race walk at the Ethiopian U20 Championships in Assela in 2022. A year later he slashed that to 41:36.64 at the African U20 Championships in Zambia.
Fast forward to this March and he won the Ethiopian Championships in 38:04.09 – a mark that elevated him to 15th on the world all-time list.
In between, there have been gold medals from the African Championships and All-African Games at 20km, and a top-10 finish at the same distance at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Türkiye, in 2024.
Misgana Wakuma at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya in 2024 (© World Athletics 
Sergio Mateo Maria)
But the biggest eye catcher until Brasília was an outstanding sixth place in the Paris Olympic Games 20km race walk that same year.
Wakuma remained with the leaders until 18km in Paris, before the eventual top four moved away. He still finished in 1:19:31 – then a national record – while winning the admiration of the athletics world.
He says he was inspired by the efforts of Yehualeye Beletew, the 2018 African champion who set an Ethiopian 20km race walk record of 1:31:32 in 2021 and won silver at the African Championships in 2022 where Wakuma placed fourth, but he insists training at altitude, self-belief and a healthy diet are key ingredients to his success.
“I used to follow Yehualeye, who really came before me, and I could see she was making progress,” he said.
“But because of my results, because of my progress, I thought I could start to challenge for big medals.”
That diet of meat, eggs, milk and traditional Ethiopian food: "... that works for me, also includes injera – in fact, it’s my daily food,” Wakuma added.
Injera is a sour fermented pancake-like flatbread with a slightly spongy texture, traditionally made of teff flour. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is a staple. Wakuma’s daily bread comes with punishing daily workouts in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, 2355 metres above sea level, where he lives.
He is one of a family of 11, and none of the other 10 have an interest in athletics.
“They like football or don’t play sport at all,” he said. “I’m the only athlete.”
If not training, he’s relaxing and “having fun” as much as any top athlete can, and when asked to nominate his favourite race walkers, the list has few surprises.
Olympic gold medallists Álvaro Martín, María Pérez and Massimo Stano, along with world champion Caio Bonfim who finished behind Wakuma in Brasília, and Francesco Fortunato who finished ahead to win the inaugural half marathon at the World Race Walking Team Championships, all get the Wakuma approval.
Francesco Fortunato, Misgana Wakuma and Caio Bonfim in Brasília (© World Athletics Oscar Munoz Badilla)
“There is much to admire about them,” he said. “But I came to Brasília thinking I could get a medal after my results since 2024. I can start to dream of becoming a world and Olympic champion.”
The name Wakuma in Amharic, or more specifically Oromo, the language spoken by around 40% of Ethiopians, roughly translates as ‘Godlike’ or ‘divine’.
If Wakuma continues to make progress like that which got him silver in Brasília and another African gold in Accra, it might well see prayers answered for that global gold. It might also see a lot of athletes looking up the recipe for injera.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
