Thread by @RealHauleGluck

#TigrayCantWait⚡️ Meet the Guy Who Stormed the Track After the Women’s 5,000 at the 2022 Worlds

- Seconds after Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay won her first global outdoor title in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field,…

… a bearded man in dark blue shorts and a white patterned shirt unbuttoned below his chest ran onto the track, lifted up Tsegay and fellow Ethiopian fifth-placer Letesenbet Gidey and, after a brief chase, was apprehended by security and led away from the track.

It was a bizarre moment if you haven’t been following what’s been going on in Ethiopia for the last year and a half. If you have, you may have noticed the red-and-yellow flag the track invader carried with him as the flag of the Tigray region of Ethiopia,

which has been the center of a brutal conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Ethiopian government. There were a number of Tigray flags in the stands Saturday night,

particularly on the curve near the 5,000m start as both Tsegay and Gidey (who won the 10,000 meters earlier in these championships) hail from the region.

The conflict in Tigray began in November 2020 when Tigray forces attacked an Ethiopian military base in the area, after which Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed dispatched forces in response. According to Human Rights Watch, a number of hospitals, schools,

factories, and businesses have been damaged or destroyed in the region, with more than 2 million people forced to flee their homes. Some of those who have stayed have found themselves cut off from basic resources like food and electricity.

After the race, the Tigrai_TV account said Gidey’s parents have not been able to see her for the last two years.

Following Tsegay’s victory, around two dozen protestors marched around the Hayward Field concourse with Tigray flags, posters, and shirts reading “FREE TIGRAY”

and “TIGRAY IS A COUNTRY” while chanting phrases such as “End Tigray genocide.” At the back of that pack, LetsRun found the man who had stormed the track less than an hour earlier. He said his name is Mearg Mekonen, 40, he is originally from the Tigray, but now lives in Texas.

Mekonen said he had planned to come to watch Tsegay and Gidey run tonight but had not planned on running onto the track. After Tsegay won, however, he said he felt overcome with emotion and that he needed to do something.
“I couldn’t control it,” Mekonen said.

Mekonen said his goal was to raise global awareness for what is happening now in the Tigray.
“I tried to be a voice for the voiceless,” Mekonen said. “I want people to know that there is genocide happening right now when we’re speaking and people don’t have access.

For an athlete such as Tsegay or Gidey to speak out carries risk to not just themselves, but their families and loved ones back home, which is one of the reasons Mekonen said he felt he needed to do something.

“Even the athletes cannot see or talk to their family,” Mekonen said. “I’m trying to be a voice for the athletes and for the people.”

@threadreaderapp unroll