Wellington Zaza (born 20 January 1995) is a Liberian

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today ...

who specializes in the

110 meters hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurd ...

and the

400 meters hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

. Zaza is the African junior record holder in the 110 metres hurdles. He broke that record at the

2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition for athletes qualifying as juniors (born 1995 or later) which was held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA, on 22–27 July 2014. A total of 44 a ...

. He has also competed at a

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Early life

Zaza was born on 20 January 1995, a member of the

Krahn The Krahn are an ethnic group of Liberia and Ivory Coast. This group belongs to the Kru language family and its people are sometimes referred to as the Wee, Guéré, Sapo, or Wobe. It is likely that Western contact with the Kru language is the p ...

tribe. Zaza's father had ties with the

Samuel Doe Samuel Kanyon Doe (6 May 1951 – 9 September 1990) was a Liberian politician and military officer who served as the 21st President of Liberia from 1986 to 1990. He ruled Liberia as Chairman of the People's Redemption Council (PRC) from 1980 ...

government, and as such, after Doe was deposed, Zaza's father was made a political prisoner. In 1999, Zaza's mother was able to flee the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...

and go to the United States. The same year, Zaza as refugee arrived in the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. Two years later, Zaza's mother returned, and was able to bring him and his siblings to the United States, where he came to live in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

. In 2014, Zaza started to attend

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

, from which he graduated in 2017.

Competition

Zaza's debut at an international athletics competition was at the

. Zaza competed in both the

and the

. For the heat round of the 110 meters hurdles, Zaza was drawn in heat two, a heat containing seven other athletes alongside Zaza. In his heat, Zaza ran a time of 13.66 seconds, a season's best for him, to finish third in his heat. He finished 0.07 seconds behind the heat winner, American

Theophile Viltz Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (''theós'', "God") and φιλία (''philía'', "love or affection") can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend ...

, and 0.02 seconds behind the heat runner-up,

Patrick Elger Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

of Germany. Overall, Zaza was the equal ninth quickest athlete (equal with Hungarian Valdó Szücs) in the heat round. As the top three athletes from each heat qualified for the semi-finals, Zaza progressed. In the semi-final, Zaza ran a Liberian junior record time of 13.53 seconds to finish second in the race. Zaza was 0.08 seconds behind the race winner, Jamaican

Tyler Mason Tyler Mason (born 15 November 1995) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 110 and 60m hurdles. Career Junior career Mason was a silver medalist at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics in the 110 metres hurdles in Eugene, O ...

. Overall, Zaza's time was the fifth quickest in the semi-final round. As the top two finishers from each semi-final qualified for the final, Zaza progressed. In the final, Zaza ran a time of 13.38 seconds. The time was a new African junior record in the 110 meters hurdles. Zaza finished fourth, 0.39 seconds behind the winner,

Wilhem Belocian Wilhem Belocian (born 25 June 1995) is a French hurdler and sprinter from Guadeloupe. Career Belocian won the 110 metre hurdles bronze medal at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics, in a personal best of 13.51 seconds. He won the 1 ...

of France. In the 400 metres hurdles, Zaza did not progress past the heats after his time of 55.38 seconds was not quick enough to progress. At the 2015 World Championships, Zaza was the only competitor from

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

. He competed in the

. He finished last in his heat (of athletes that finished) in a time of 14.56 seconds. Zaza was the second slowest athlete overall in the heat round. Zaza did not progress to the semi-finals.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaza, Wellington 1995 births Living people Liberian male hurdlers Krahn people Liberian refugees Refugees in the United States Auburn Tigers men's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships athletes for Liberia Place of birth missing (living people) Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 African Games African Games competitors for Liberia Liberian expatriate sportspeople in the United States 21st-century Liberian sportsmen