Tariku Jufar (born 18 July 1984) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. He has won the Beijing, Beirut and Houston Marathons and has had top-three finishes in Istanbul, Mumbai, Los Angeles, Lake Biwa and Hamburg. His personal best for the distance is 2:06:51 hours (set in 2012). In addition to marathon running, he also represented his country at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2003 and 2007. Career Born in Debre Zeyit in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, he took up running after seeing the success of Haile Gebrselassie at the World Championships and Olympic Games. He started to train and moved to Addis Ababa around 2003. His rise as a professional athlete began at the 2003 Ethiopian half marathon championships, where he was runner-up behind Dereje Adere. As a result he was chosen for the Ethiopian team at the 2003 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, where he came 17th. That year he was also third at the Paderborn Easter Run and second at the Reims Half Marathon. He did not build upon this success until 2006, when he returned to major half marathon running with a runner-up finish at the Nice Half Marathon and a fifth place at the Delhi Half Marathon. His debut over the marathon distance came in January 2007 and he transitioned well, taking third place at the Mumbai Marathon in a time of 2:12:49 hours. An appearance at the Paris Marathon followed, but he could only manage 11th at the higher profile race. He represented Ethiopia in the half marathon at the 2007 All-Africa Games, coming eighth, and he ran a personal best of 61:28 minutes for 18th place at the 2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships. His final outing of the year came at the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon and his third place finish in 2:11:05 hours was the beginning of a marathon-focused period of his career. Tariku Jufar led for the early stages of the Mumbai Marathon in January 2008 and held on to take second place behind Kenya's John Kelai. A career best time of 2:08:10 hours came at the Hamburg Marathon three months later (where he was third) The Toronto Waterfront Marathon was promoted as a rematch between him and Kelai, but both had sub-standard races – the Ethiopian was 13th and his time of 2:18:47 hours was by far the slowest of his professional career. His performance at