Ambesse Tolosa

Ambesse Tolosa (born 28 August 1977 in Shewa) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who specializes in the marathon race.

Tolosa tested positive for banned substances in February 2008 and received a two-year ban from competitive athletics. The substance that was present in his system (morphine) was not a performance-enhancing drug and Tolosa said that he did not know how it had gotten into his body, but the IAAF rules stated that athletes received bans regardless of intent.^[1] His results from 9 December 2007 onwards were annulled,^[2] which included his win at the Honolulu Marathon that year.

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Ethiopia
1998	Hokkaido Marathon	Sapporo, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:10:13
1999	World Championships	Seville, Spain	13th	Marathon	2:16:45
2000	World Cross Country Championships	Vilamoura	2nd	Team
	Rotterdam Marathon	Rotterdam, Netherlands	8th	Marathon	2:10:57
2001	Beijing Marathon	Beijing, PR China	5th	Marathon	2:10:37
2002	Amsterdam Marathon	Amsterdam, Netherlands	7th	Marathon	2:10:09
2003	World Championships	Paris, France	19th	Marathon	2:12:19
2004	Paris Marathon	Paris, France	1st	Marathon	2:08:56
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	15th	Marathon	2:15:39
2005	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	19th	Marathon	2:16:36
2006	Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon	San Diego, United States	1st	Marathon	2:10:08
	Tokyo Marathon	Tokyo, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:08:58
	Honolulu Marathon	Honolulu, Hawaii	1st	Marathon	2:13:42
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	38th	Marathon	2:30:20

Personal bests

Surface	Event	Time (h:min:s)	Venue	Date
Road	10 km	27:56	Groesbeek, Netherlands	10 June 2000
	Half marathon	1:02:19	Brussels, Belgium	5 May 2002
	25 km	1:15:31	Tokyo, Japan	12 February 2006
	30 km	1:30:43	Rotterdam, Netherlands	24 April 2002
	Marathon	2:08:56	Paris, France	4 April 2004

• All information taken from IAAF profile.