Bazu Worku

Who is Bazu Worku?

Bazu Worku is a long-distance runner from Ethiopia who competes in marathon races.

Worku made his first appearances on the road running circuit in 2008: he was third in the 15 km race at the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon in October, and registered a personal best at the Delhi Half Marathon. He improved his half marathon best at the Paris Half Marathon in March 2009, winning the race in a time of 1:01:56.

On 5 April 2009 at the Paris Marathon, Worku ran his debut marathon in 2:06:15 to finish as runner-up to Vincent Kipruto of Kenya. This was the fastest time ever run for an 18-year-old over the distance. Worku ran at the Ottawa Marathon in May 2010 and placed third, twenty seconds adrift of winner Arata Fujiwara. He improved his personal best time at the 2010 Berlin Marathon, running 2:05:25 to take third place. He ran at the national 30 km championships but was beaten into second place by Azmeraw Bekele. He was selected for the World Championship Marathon in 2011 but failed to finish the race.

He ran at three high profile marathons in 2012. He ran a season's best of 2:07:48 at the Dubai Marathon and also entered the 2012 London Marathon, but did not make the top ten in either race. He was runner-up at the Chinese Lanzhou Marathon then managed fifth at the Frankfurt Marathon. He won his first race of 2013 at the Houston Marathon.