Eritrea's Mekseb Debesay and his sister Mosana Debesay win the Elite Men & Women ITT

Team Eritrea's Mekseb Debesay and his sister Mosana Debesay win the Elite Men & Women ITT 

This article was translated from French using online software


By David Kalfa

Mekseb Debesay and his sister Mosana Debesay were respectively crowned champions of Africa in the men's and women's individual time trial on February 15, 2018 in Kigali. New success for this Eritrean family of cyclists.

This is unprecedented in the history of the African Road Cycling Championships and probably very rare in the world of cycling: an older brother and his younger sister were indeed crowned continental champions the same day.

Eritrean Mekseb Debesay and his sister Mosana Debesay respectively won the men's and women's individual time trials (cmi) on 15 February 2018 in Kigali.

"We dreamed about it last week!"

Mekseb beat Rwandans Jean Bosco Nsengimana and Joseph Areruya in men, while Mosana was better than Ethiopian Selam Amha and Eyeru Gebru.

" It's a fantastic day ," Mekseb Debesay marveled at Olivier Pron, RFI's special correspondent for Rwanda. Double champions with my sister! These are two titles for the family! We dreamed about it last week! (Laughter) Because last June, we had already been one and the other champions of our country, Eritrea [individual time trial, Editor's note] . Now, with her again, we are champions of Africa! I am so happy. Our parents are proud of us. And we have brothers. So, the whole family is happy! "

A family of winners

The Debesay are indeed regular podiums since it is the second title in Rwanda for Mekseb, after the team time trial won by Eritrea. The Dimension Data resident also won in the same category in 2015 and 2016, in addition to the bronze in the 2016 online race.

Mosana, she had to settle for bronze with other Eritreans in 2015 and 2016 before taking revenge in 2017, with gold. The 24-year-old had also won the silver medal behind Mauritian Aurélie Halbwachs in 2017 against the individual time trial.

Not bad for Meseb and Mosana who mimic their 31-year-old brother. Fregalsi Debesay has been the African time trial champion three times (2010, 2011, 2012) and took the bronze in the 2012 online race. A family of "winners", in short, who There are two brothers, Jacob and Kindishih.

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