Gold medal-winning cyclist could miss UCI World Championships after not getting asylum interview for refugee status in the UK despite waiting for almost a year

An asylum-seeking cyclist from Ethiopia, who won gold medal in the national road and time trial race last year and has been waiting for almost a year for an interview for her refugee status in the UK, could miss out on the UCI Road World Championships, set to take place in Zurich from 21 to 29 September if she doesn’t receive her travel documents in time, despite being invited to take part in the competition by international pro cycling’s governing body.

22-year-old Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, besides being the national champion, also won in the individual and team trial race at the African Games in 2019, a UCI junior continental event. Last year, she fled her country to escape dangerous conditions after the Ethiopian government began military operations in the Tigray region against the area’s ruling party, causing the displacement of two million people.

Despite living off just under £10 a week and amidst concerns over her nutrition and training, Trhas has taken part in three amateur races as well as the Ride London this year, and has received an invitation from the UCI to join the Refugee Team for the upcoming Worlds. However, she can only race if she is granted refugee status and can get a travel document after her interview, for which she has been waiting for more than a year.

While the Home Office has said it did not comment on individual cases, Trhas told the BBC: “I have never done a world championships. That is really my dream. I don’t want to miss this one.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Trhas Teklehaimanot (@teklehaimanottrhas)

After coming to the UK, Trhas came to the West London Welcome community centre to study and learn English. When Joanne MacInnes, director of the community centre, found out that she was a cyclist, she and others started helping her.

“It is so easy to help Trhas because she is so determined and such a lovely person,” MacInnes said. “We do have mountain bikes in the centre, so she just started off with an ordinary mountain bike that had been donated to us, but we realised that she needed a professional bike.”

> Asylum-seeking elite cyclist told to move to Bibby Stockholm barge — as Home Office says he cannot take his bike onboard

A crowdfunding campaign was therefore started and after “about a week” the centre was able to afford one. “It was well below her level, it was a starting bike, but something good that she could train on," Ms MacInnes said. The centre raised £5,000 altogether, all ring-fenced for Trhas' training, nutrition and transport to competitions.

“You see people spending so much time in those hotels. They arrive with so much hope and then it just dies after month after month of horrible food, you're not able to work, you get £8.86 so you can't even go out and get a coffee, people get really depressed.

“But Trhas, someone was bringing her a gym pass and she was spending five, six hours on the bike machine, keeping up her fitness - she's remarkably determined and it's so inspiring,” she said.

 

 

 

 

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In a personal column in The Guardian, Trhas, who’s currently training with the non-profit group Team Africa Rising, mentioned that she first rode a cycle when she was 13, borrowing her elder brother’s bike.

She said: “There is nowhere in the hotel to store my racing bike so Joanne MacInnes, director of the charity West London Welcome, which is doing a lot to support me along with the organisation Team Africa Rising, allows me to store my bike at her house.

“Girls are not encouraged to ride bicycles in Ethiopia, but I have a rebellious spirit and that made me determined to continue. My family are supporting me with my cycling here and so are the people from my area. I am determined to succeed and reach my ultimate dream of competing in the Tour de France.

“I try to cycle for six or six-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week. When I’m on my bike, I can switch off from all my problems about what is happening in my country and life as an asylum seeker. It’s just me and the bike. If I can’t cycle, I’m just stuck in my room and my anxiety increases.”

In April, the BBC reported that her case was brought up in the House of Commons by MP for Hammersmith, Andy Slaughter, on Monday over concerns about her nutrition, where he said being housed in the hotel was “so bad it made her sick and unable to compete”.

 

 

 

 

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Jeremy Ford, a volunteer at the community centre, said: “She’s raced a couple of national series races, where our dream was that she might just finish. But she’s finished top 30 in both of them, which at her level is a great achievement.

“At 22 years old, it’s a pinnacle moment in a cycling career, and the world championships is the absolutely biggest race in the world - a moment to show what you’re capable of.”

MacInnes added: “It’s so frustrating. I can just imagine the interview coming a week too late and that would just break my heart. She just deserves this. She trains so hard.

“Trhas’s asylum case is really strong. It’s just a question of granting her this interview, making a decision, and getting the necessary travel documents.”

In May, Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, an elite cyclist who has won Asian Cycling Championships gold and competed in the individual time trial against Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna at last year's UCI Cycling World Championships, found himself in a situation where he could be ordered to move to the Bibby Stockholm barge by the Home Office.

Ganjkhanlou, who represented Iran at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland last year, said: “The Reading Cycling Club are like family to me. Because I am an asylum seeker I have to work my way back through the elite cycling system from the beginning and the club is helping me with this.

“If I can lock my bike up somewhere in Portland it would allow me to train on my own, but I will not have the chance to rebuild my career under the banner of Reading Cycling Club and race alongside my friends. When I found Reading Cycling Club bright days started for me and I forgot my sorrows a little and got closer to competing again.”