On Feb. 6, a large earthquake hit Turkey and a part of Syria, killing greater than 46,000 folks. When the earthquake hit, Turkish runner Yayla Kiliç Gönen was in Diyarbakir, a metropolis within the southeast of the nation. Lower than two weeks later, Kiliç Gönen travelled to Spain to race the Seville Marathon on Sunday, marking her debut on the distance. Regardless of the horrible tragedy that has struck Kiliç Gönen, her family and friends, and her nation as an entire, she managed to run to an unbelievable consequence, putting fifteenth in 2:29:10, the third-fastest marathon in Turkish historical past.
Kiliç Gönen, who will flip 26 in March, has had loads of success in her younger profession, together with three Turkish nationwide titles. Her first Turkish crown got here in 2019, when she received the nationwide 10,000m championship. In 2020, simply earlier than the pandemic put all racing on maintain, Kiliç Gönen received her second nationwide title, this time within the indoor 3,000m. She adopted that up together with her third nationwide championship win in as a few years, as soon as once more claiming the ten,000m title in 2021. She has since made the leap to highway racing, and as of Sunday, she’s one in all her nation’s quickest marathoners ever.
As Kiliç Gönen stated on Instagram after her race, the consequence means a lot extra to her contemplating what so a lot of her compatriots are going by in the meanwhile. “I might be glad if I may make the nation smile even for a second after the disaster we’re experiencing,” she wrote.
Now two weeks on from the earthquake, the loss of life toll in Turkey and Syria continues to be rising, and aftershocks proceed to influence the area. To make a donation for the help and help of the folks affected by this tragedy, click on right here.
