Abreham Cherkos Feleke (Amharic: አብረሃም ቸርቆስ ፈለቀ; born 23 September 1989) is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner. A former track specialist, he now competes in road running events including the marathon.
He became world junior champion in 2008 and also made his Olympic debut, finishing fifth at the 2008 Beijing Games. After a year out in 2009, he made his marathon debut in 2010 at the Amsterdam Marathon, setting a best of 2:07:29.
Later in the year, Abreham, in one of the most famous athletics stadiums – Bislett Stadion – he ran 12:59 in only his second 5000 metres race, finishing fifth behind a group of experienced runners including Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and Isaac Kiprono Songok of Kenya. He followed his sub-13 minute performance with a 12:54.19 in Rome later on in the season. At sixteen years of age Abreham was running under the world record 12 years earlier. He completed the 2006 season with a silver medal in the 2006 World Junior Championships behind his older countryman Tariku Bekele. At the last meet of the year he beat Tariku at the IAAF World Athletics Final.
As a junior with one year of competition under his belt Abreham was able to finish third against the top athletes at the discipline at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fifth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 5000 m later that year.
He began 2011 with a run at the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon and he finished fourth in 61:42 minutes. He was invited to the 2011 Boston Marathon and ended the race in fifth place with a time of 2:06:13 (a personal best, but on a wind-assisted course). His sole outing the following year came at the 2012 London Marathon, but he was much slower and his time of 2:12:46 hours left him in 15th place and out of touch with the top runners. He missed the entire 2013, but returned in 2014 in good form, running a legal-course best of 2:07:08 hours to take fifth at the Seoul International Marathon.[4]
