Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
It became the question of the day at the New York City Marathon, when the guy few had heard of, the one wearing an off-the-rack singlet rather than one from a fancy sponsor, claimed third place in the world’s biggest marathon.
Then he walked into the postrace news conference wearing the most basic pair of sweatpants and a pullover.
“I don’t have a sponsor,” he said. “I don’t have an agent. I just compete individually.”
These were the words of Girma Bekele Gebre, 26, an Ethiopian sub-elite runner who runs with the West Side Runners club when he is in New York.