Filimon Abraham is a late starter among runners.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Filimon Abraham came as a fugitive. In addition to training, he works part-time as an electrician. Now he wants to reach the top of the German league – even though he is only running his second marathon in Frankfurt.
AWhen he finally got there, Filimon Abraham got goosebumps. The nature, the mountains, the cities – he had seen them all before. On pictures and videos. But the beauty, for which some Europeans have long since become blind in a life of weariness, had its full effect on him at first: “It was amazing. I thought that can’t be true,” says Abraham today.
From his German you can still hear that he only came to Germany in 2014 as a refugee from Eritrea. But whoever listens to him also gets a feeling for how big the steps he has made since then are: in life and in running. In 2020 Abraham received German citizenship. At the marathon in Frankfurt on Sunday, he wants to finish a race over the 42.195-kilometer route for the first time: for Germany.
