a relative late-comer to competitive running: in his late teens, scouts from a local athletics club suggested that his cycling stamina might translate to running and invited him to compete. He won the race and was spurred on by the victory to start taking the sport seriously and focus on running. Zersenay was adamant that his early years in cycling had given him a firm foundation for endurance running. His first foray into the international athletics circuit came in 2002, when he attended the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Dublin. Although he was wearing ill-fitting shoes and was somewhat puzzled at hearing a starting gun for the first time, he managed to finish in 30th place with a time of 36 minutes and 37 seconds. However, he remained some distance off the winner Kenenisa Bekele. He competed at his first IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in May of that year, finishing just outside the top twenty runners with a time of 1:03:05. He competed on the track at the African Athletics Championships, taking sixth place in the 10,000 metres race in Radès, Tunisia, rounding off a modest debut year. The 2003 season saw Zersenay establish himself as an emerging force in cross country: he broke into the top ten at the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, and finished in the top three in all of his six races in Europe that winter. A 5000 metres win at the KBC Night of Athletics brought Zersenay an Eritrean record of 13:11.07, and a place at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. At the 2003 World Championships, he improved his record further to 13:05.57 and finished in eighth place in the 5000 metres final. More improvements came at the World Half Marathon Championships in Vilamoura, Portugal, where he recorded a personal best of 1:01:26 to finish in seventh position. Olympic medalist The 2004 season represented a breakthrough for Zersenay and he established himself as a serious contender in distance running. He signed a contract with Adidas Spain and brought the team victory at the European Clubs' Cross Country Cup in February. The following month he bettered his previous showings at the World Cross Country Championships with a sixth-place finish. With the help of teammates Yonas Kifle and Tesfayohannes Mesfen, among others, he took Eritrea to third position in the team competition – the first time the country had reached the