PEACHTREE ROAD RACE: Alias gets top racer DQ'd from event
Karen Rosen - Staff
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Four years ago, Alene Emere was fooled by the Peachtree Road Race
finish line. The Ethiopian, who had won the race in 2000, came to a
dead stop a quarter-mile too soon and was passed.
This year, Emere tried to fool Peachtree.
He succeeded, too, placing sixth under a false name until he was
exposed by a tipster on a Web site. Race officials disqualified Emere,
who had entered under the name Amara Leta, and asked for the return of
$1,500 in prize money.
"He flat-out lied," said Elizabeth Unislawski, Peachtree's elite
athletes liaison.
Peachtree officials hadn't snubbed Emere when they decided which
runners to invite; he was not on their radar screen. "I didn't know he
was still running," Unislawski said.
Emere served a doping suspension from September 2001 to September 2003
for taking the steroid nandrolone. His best result since was sixth at
the 2004 World Half-Marathon Championships in New Delhi, India.
Unislawski said Emere, 24, might have been afraid to identify himself
because of the drug suspension.
So he tried another tactic. Three days before the July 4 race,
Unislawski was approached by a local Ethiopian at the Ritz-Carlton
Buckhead, the elite athletes' headquarters. He said he had a runner who
wanted to enter the race and could turn in a fast time.
"We're not just going to let somebody in the race," said Unislawski.
Besides, she thought the runner sure looked like Emere. Other people
disagreed. Well, Unislawski figured, this man was wearing a hat and was
kind of scruffy, while the Emere she remembered was very clean-cut.
The man said he was Emere's brother. Elite athletes coordinator John
Curtin asked to see his passport and the name matched Amara Leta.
Then Hussein Makke, a Pennsylvania-based agent, sent an e-mail saying
he was scheduled to meet with the runner later in the week and would
vouch for him. Although Curtin and Unislawski couldn't find any trace
of Leta on the Internet to verify his race results, they decided the
man they'd given race number 26 could stay in the race.
On July 4, Unislawski said, Emere arrived at the starting line at the
last second, again wearing a baseball cap. After placing sixth with a
time of 28 minutes, 43 seconds, he stayed outside the elite athletes'
tent instead of mixing with the group.
According to "Race Results Weekly," on July 6 an anonymous posting on a
running message board identifed Leta as Alene Emere and aroused further
suspicion.
Although it was too late to stop payment on the $1,500 Peachtree check,
Makke returned $460 on Emere's behalf. Emere had spent $100, sent $500
to Ethiopia and the rest was withheld for taxes.
Emere has returned to Ethiopia.