05.11.2014
Spedition Eberl supports asylum-seeker Filmon Abraham
The international running scene is taking note: The young asylum-seeker, Filmon Abraham came in 9th place out of a field of more than 400 participants at this year’s international Hochfelln Mountain Race and now finds himself in the top ten of the world’s best mountain runners. Eberl sponsored this extraordinary running talent.
“A New Star in the Running Firmament,” read the headline of the Oberbayerische Volksblatt, an Upper Bavarian newspaper, over a week before the Hochfelln race. This came after the 22-year-old refugee from Eritrea won the Tüttensee Race, well ahead of long-distance star Tobi Angerer. Now, his enthusiastic Eberl fan club was eagerly waiting for him at the finish line atop the sunny summit of Mount Hochfelln. “An incredible performance,” beamed Thomas Eberl among some of the other sports fans from the company who came out to witness the feat. Naturally, a winner’s photo in front of the summit cross at the top of the mountain was in order.
It was Eberl employee Roland Klosa who discovered the running talents of Filmon Abraham. Together with a group of committed residents from the town of Teisendorf, Roland Klosa volunteered to work with a total of 11 refugees from Eritrea. They had been settled in his home town of Teisendorf during the summer. “Sports have always been a way of bringing people together and I’m also an avid runner. So, it happened that we began practicing together. Just for the fun of it, we decided to sign-up three of them for the Traunreuter City Race,” the Eberl employee explained. There, Filmon surprised everyone by coming in second – “He would have won easily if he had recognized the word ‘Ziel’ (finish) and sprinted down the home stretch,” Klosa laughed. No problem – at the Rupertus Hot Springs Race two weeks later, Filmon secured the victory. For his devoted coach, it was now clear: His protégé would represent Spedition Eberl at the 41st Annual, Hochfelln Mountain Race and take on the international elite. With beautiful mountain weather and cheered on by a large crowd, the young Eritrean ran the 8.9 kilometer race with an elevation change of 1,074 meters in a time of 45:48, less than a minute behind his fellow countryman Petro Mamo.
With this amazing overall performance, this young athlete, who deserted from the military in his home country and was forced to flee, closed out his first season in his new homeland. With his final race in the beginning of November, he would like to become the overall winner of the Three Lakes’ Cup, as he already has two victories in the bag. Shortly thereafter, winter training will begin – but now, the top priority on Filmon’s list is his schoolwork. Intensive German lessons are the order of the day. “We have to get these young people ready for their daily lives. After all, our support should be in helping them help themselves. They have to know what they need to be prepared for here in Germany – like the winter for example,” Roland Klosa said with a smile.