Wings for Life World Run Winner Logs Nearly 50 Miles

After running for five hours and five minutes, Garmin athlete Lemawork Ketema was finally passed by a Catcher Car in Austria to conclude the 2015 Wings for Life World Run. He ended up running 79.9 kilometers which is equivalent to 49.6 miles. Ketema won the inaugural race last year and held off Peru’s Remigio Huaman Quispe who was caught at the 78.2km mark to repeat.

“I am very lucky,” said Ketema. “I held back a bit so we [he and Quispe] pushed together and worked together. I am very happy I have won for a second time.”

He had a difficult journey on the road to repeating as the Wings for Life World Run Global Men’s Winner. Four years ago, Ketema came to Austria as a refugee from Ethiopia. Ketema was accidently discovered by a running coach in Vienna and he helped him develop his running skills.

While there is only one global winner, over 100,000 people registered for the event which took place on Sunday, May 3, 2015 in 35 different locations around the world. A total of €4.2 million was raised for spinal cord research. If you are interested in supporting Wings for Life, click here to purchase a Special Edition Wings for Life vívofit 2.

Make sure you mark May 8, 2016 on your calendar because this is when the 2016 Wings for Life World Run will be taking place. You can preregister here.