ETHIOPIAN RUNNING LEGEND MIRUTS YIFTER

Miruts Yifter, a double Olympic champion for Ethiopia at the 1980 Olympic Games, died yesterday (22) in Toronto, Canada, after being hospitalised for respiratory ailments. Yifter, considered by many as one of the greatest middle distance runners of all time, was 72.

Yifter’s crowning achievement was his 5000m and 10,000m double triumph at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow at age 40, where he earned the nickname ‘Yifter the Shifter’ for the rapid injections of speed that helped propel him to victory. In both contests, Yifter surged and slowed to confuse his key opponents. The tactic worked. problems.