Bendere Oboya

The rise of Ethiopian-born Sydney teenager, Bendere Oboya over the last decade has been thrilling to watch. From a 60-seconds plus 400m athlete to Commonwealth Youth champion in 2017, Commonwealth Games representative on the Gold Coast, then the highest placed teenager at the 2019 world championships. In 2021 she made her Olympic debut over 400m, then post-Tokyo a move to a new event – the 800m.

Oboya arrived in Australia in 2003 aged three with her family including five siblings. She participated in athletics from an early age, initially at Blacktown Little Athletics, but when she was 16, a school athletics trip to Canada encouraged her to take an athletics career more seriously, locating a coach and commencing training.

Immediately Oboya knew athletics was for her. "You know when you have a feeling that something’s for you? That’s how I feel about running track," she said.

Her progression was rapid, reaching 53.02 seconds at the 2017 National Championships and selection for her international debut – the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games.

In 2018 she competed at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, however, was injured for the competition.

At the 2019 World Championships Oboya made the 400m semi-final with an extraordinary personal best heat time of 51.21. The mark was a Tokyo Olympics qualifier and made her the second-fastest junior in Australian history, behind Olympic Champion Cathy Freeman and ahead of dual 400m hurdles world champion Jana Pittman.

A strong summer season in 2020/21 secured an Olympic debut for Oboya in Tokyo. She placed fifth in her 400m heat (52.37 seconds), ahead of leading off the women's 4x400m relay team which placed seventh in their heat.

Post-Tokyo Oboya moved her focus to a new event the 800m.

“The decision to want to double the distance began before Tokyo. With Sydney in Lock down post Tokyo I wanted to get stuck right into it. Straight from my quarantine room I moved to Melbourne to train with Justin Rinaldi,” Oboya said. She was now also training alongside Australia’s leading 800m men - Peter Bol and Joseph Deng.

Oboya made a tremendous racing debut at the new distance, winning the Adelaide Invitational in February 2022 in a time of 2:02.88. She won the Sydney Track classic in March in a PB time of 2:01.92, but at Nationals didn’t proceed past the heats. She raced in Europe until June 2022.

But then Bendere Oboya retired, submitting all the required paperwork.

“I stopped calling myself an athlete for a bit. I just wanted to be a 22-year-old girl. Just a normal girl. I needed to step back and prioritise myself.”

She still maintained fitness doing gym work, Pilates and boxing. Craig Mottram, coach of the newly formed On Athletics Club in Melbourne maintained contact and eventually Oboya returned to athletics.

“For me right now I look back on it, it was the best thing I ever did. I feel fresher and more motivated, like I have found myself again,” Oboya said.

She resumed competing in December 2023 racing over 600m at the Zatopek Classic. In February she returned to the 800m dabbling with some different race tactics with mixed success – second in Adelaide then 10th in Melbourne. But in March 2024 at the Canberra Track Classic, she nailed it clocking 1:59.01 - a three seconds PB, the fifth fastest Australian ever and a Paris Olympic qualifier.

She was part of a rising wave in the event including training partner Claudia Hollingsworth. At the Nationals she placed third behind Claudia, Abbey Caldwell and ahead of the National record holder Catriona Bisset. 

The National relay selectors called Bendere in to assist the 4x400m relay qualify for the Olympics and at the World Relays in May, with Bendere on the leadup off leg, they came very close to qualification. In June Bendere headed to Europe clocking 2:02 and 2.00 in her opening races, ahead of smashing the Australian 600m best on record time of 1:25.5 (held by Susan Andrews), clocking 1:24.53 in Spain. But four days later she raced in Vienna and stunned with another massive 800m PB time of 1:58.56, defeating training partner Claudia Hollingsworth.