Efrem Gidey has come a long way in eight years but there's still plenty of road to go
Efrem Gidey, the Irish Record Holder for the Half Marathon, officially opened entries for the new Dublin City Half Marathon. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
It’s been a long road. But Efrem Gidey is used to that. From fleeing the war-torn country of Eritrea to spending several months at a refugee camp in France to starting a new life in Dublin, he’s come an awfully long way over the past eight years. Though there’s lots of distance left to run.
The 24-year-old is now an Irish citizen. He’s an Irish record holder, having scorched a 60:51 half marathon in Copenhagen last September. He’s also now a full-time, professional athlete, running for Hoka, and has a slew of international caps to his name, most notably his sixth-place finish over 10,000m at the European Championships in 2022.
When he first landed in Ireland, back in March 2017, Gidey was 16 and didn’t speak English. He had no family with him. No real plan. Just hope. A care worker soon discovered his love of running and reached out to Joe Cooper, a longtime coach at Clonliffe Harriers, asking if he’d take him on board.
Cooper gladly accepted, helping Gidey to learn English, sorting him a bike so he could get around. He treated him like a son. “There were times I was sad because I’m human, I miss my family,” says Gidey, whose family is currently in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
“You come here, you don’t speak the language, you don’t understand anyone, but someone understands you by looking at you, by your face. When you have someone who understands you, life is easy. It doesn’t matter about money, about clothes. You need to be understood.”
Cooper understood him, and found ways around the language barrier, using a translator to tell Gidey he’d achieve his dreams if he kept working. In those late teen years, so prone to aimlessness, it gave him direction.
Cooper coached Gidey to an U-20 bronze medal at the European Cross Country Championships in 2019, a race won by Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen, but due to health issues he’d been unable to travel to Lisbon. Yet he was waiting at Dublin airport, embracing Gidey in a tearful hug, upon his return.
Twelve months later, Cooper passed away. “I feel I lost everything,” says Gidey. “Joe is not only my coach. He was a friend, family.” Peter McDermott then took over Gidey’s coaching, steering him along the tricky path to senior level, highlighted by that sixth-place finish at the Europeans in 2022.
Last year, Gidey signed a professional contract with Hoka and began working under London-based coach Andy Hobdell. Having finished his studies in business and logistics at Cathal Brugha FET College, he could finally commit to full-time running, his weekly training load rising from 60-65 miles a week to 100-115.
He’s still primarily based in Dublin, though makes regular trips across the water to train with Hobdell’s group while also doing altitude camps in Arizona and the French Pyrenees. The extra time allows him to focus on all those one-percenters: his nutrition, his imbalances, his rest and recovery.
His big target for 2024 had been Olympic qualification, and Gidey focused on the 10,000m, where just 27 spots were available. He set a personal best of 27:53.14 in California in March and again in London in May, going second on the Irish all-time list with 27:40.02. He needed another fast race to earn a spot via his world ranking, but after that they were non-existent.
And so he went to the Europeans in Rome, finishing 12th in a stop-start 10,000m, a stitch in the closing kilometres leaving him well adrift of his 2022 result. “It’s hard sometimes,” says Gidey. “You can’t have a great time every race.”
The Olympics were “hard” to watch from afar, but watch them he did. They sparked a burning ambition. “I asked myself: ‘You need to show me now your time, to break the Irish record,’” he says. “I was angry.”
In Copenhagen, he unleashed that fury, hacking over three minutes off his previous best, his 60:51 breaking Martin Fagan’s Irish record by six seconds.
“When I went back to the hotel, I was so happy, smiling all the time. I’m a (religious) man, I went back home and said, ‘Thanks, God, seriously, for this gift.’ This talent God gave me, I use.”
Among those he beat that day was Jakob Ingebrigtsen who, after a stunning track season in which he won Olympic 5000m gold and set a 3000m world record, was making his debut at the half marathon. It proved a baptism of fire, Ingebrigtsen blasting through 10K with the leaders in 27:27 – over a minute faster than Gidey – before stopping and then resuming the race at a steadier tempo, finishing in 63:13. What did Gidey think as he flew past Ingebrigtsen?
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, thank you,’” he laughs. “It’s giving me more confidence, making me push harder.” He describes Ingebrigtsen as like a “horse”, adding he’s “very strong.”
But with each passing month, each block of healthy training, Gidey is getting stronger. On Sunday, he will open his year with a 10km road race in Valencia – a city renowned for fast times. The Irish record is the 27:46 run by John Treacy in 1985, which might not survive to see its 40th birthday in March.
Looking further down the line, Gidey’s chief goal for the spring is a fast 10,000m in California, where he hopes to clock around 27:15, well below Alistair Cragg’s Irish record of 27:39.55.
This weekend will tell him plenty but whatever the result, Gidey feels in a good place, physically and mentally, as the New Year gets up and running.
“I’m more excited about what’s coming in 2025,” he says. “I hope to improve my time, to push my limits.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
