Wednesday June 3, 2009
China to honour Olympian Dibaba with hospital
ADDIS ABABA: China is to construct a multi-million-dollar hospital in Ethiopia and name it after Olympic double gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba, state-media said on Monday.
The 23-year-old set a landmark for any woman athlete when she claimed both the 5,000m and 10,000m during the Beijing Games last August — becoming only the sixth athlete to do so.
“A cornerstone will be laid next week for the construction of the ultra-modern hospital,” the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) quoted Chinese ambassador Gu Xiaojie as saying during an inauguration of a Chinese-funded road project.
The hospital, which will be known as “Tirunesh Beijing Referral Hospital” will be established in Akaki, in the outskirts of the capital at the cost of US$8.4mil, ENA said.
“The hospital would serve over 300,000 people upon going fully operational after 18 months,” it added.
Dibaba has become a successful entrepreneur in the Horn of Africa nation, following in the footsteps of her double Beijing gold-medal winner team-mate Kenenisa Bekele and the legendary Haile Gebrselasie. — AFP
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