Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu

Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu

Fitwi Sibhatu at the 2022 European Championships for the 10,000 Meters race
Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1996-01-01) 1 January 1996 (age 30) Eritrea
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event	Long-distance running
Achievements and titles
Personal best	Marathon: 2:04:45 Hamburg 2026)
Medal record Men's athletics Representing Germany European Championships 2026 Birmingham Marathon team 2024 Rome Half Marathon team

Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu (born 1 January 1996) is a German marathon runner. He won a bronze medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships and ran at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life

At the age of 17, Sibhatu fled his home country of Eritrea with a group of four peers to Cologne to escape the military regime. After his escape, he was taken in by a family in Stadtkyll, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Career

Having obtained German citizenship in 2018, Sibhatu competed for Germany in the 10,000 meters at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, where he finished in ninth place with a new personal best time of 28:03.92 minutes.

In 2023, Sibhatu achieved a personal best time of 2:08:28 hours at the Berlin Marathon, this also placed him in fourth place on the German all-time list.

On January 7, 2024, Sibhatu set a new best time of 2:06:27 in finishing fifth in the Dubai Marathon, that time met the qualifying standard for the 2024 Olympic Games.

He won a bronze medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in the Men's half marathon team event. In the individual race he placed fifth. He competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, placing fifteenth in the marathon in 2:09:50. In December 2024, he ran 2:04:56 for the marathon in Valencia, Spain.

In April 2025, he won the Hannover Marathon in 2:06:29. At the 2026 Hamburg Marathon on 26 April, he finished second behind Moroccan Othmane El Goumri in a lifetime best of 2:04:45, moving to tenth on the European all-time list.

References