page_title: Eritrea
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Eritrea / Culture / Sports
caption_attribution_description: English: Tour of Asmara Cycling race, Asmara Eritrea
context_page_description: Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in Eastern Africa, with its capital at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the south, Sudan in the west, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km², and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands.
  Eritrea is a multi-ethnic country, with nine recognized ethnic groups in its population of around five and a half million. Eritrea has nine national languages which are Tigrinya language, Tigre, Afar, Beja, Bilen, Kunama, Nara, Saho. Tigrinya, Arabic, and English serve as the three working languages. Most residents speak languages from the Afroasiatic family, either of the Ethiopian Semitic languages or Cushitic branches. Among these communities, the Tigrinyas make up about 55% of the population, with the Tigre people constituting around 30% of inhabitants. In addition, there are a number of Nilo-Saharan-speaking Nilotic ethnic groups. Most people in the territory adhere to Christianity or Islam, with a small minority adhering to traditional faiths.
context_section_description: Football and cycling are the most popular sports in Eritrea. Cycling has a long tradition in Eritrea and was first introduced during the colonial period.
  The Tour of Eritrea, a multi-stage cycling event, is held annually since 1946 throughout the country.
  The national cycling teams of both men and women are ranked first on the African continent, and Eritrea is ranked among the best cycling nations in the world.
  The Eritrea national cycling team has experienced a lot of success, winning the African continental cycling championship several years in a row. In 2013, the women's team won the gold medal in the African Continental Cycling Championships for the first time, and for the second time in 2015 and third time in 2019. The men's team have won gold 7 times in the last 9 years in the African continental cycling championships, between 2010 and 2019.
  More than six Eritrean riders have signed professional contracts to international cycling teams, including Natnael Berhane and Daniel Teklehaimanot. Berhane was named African Sportsman of the Year in 2013, while Teklehaimanot became the first Eritrean to ride the Vuelta a España in 2012. In 2015, Teklehaimanot won the King of the Mountains classification in the Critérium du Dauphiné. Teklehaimanot and fellow Eritrean Merhawi Kudus became the first black cyclists from Africa to compete in the Tour de France, when they were selected by the MTN–Qhubeka team for the 2015 edition of the race. In July of the year, Teklehaimanot also became the first rider from an African team to wear the polka dot jersey at the Tour de France.
  Eritrean athletes have also seen increasing success in the international arena in other sports. Zersenay Tadese, an Eritrean athlete, formerly held the world record in the half marathon. Ghirmay Ghebreslassie became the first Eritrean to win a gold medal at a World Championships in Athletics for his country when he took the marathon at the 2015 World Championships. Eritrea made its Winter Olympic debut 25 February 2018, when they competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea 2018. Eritrea's team was represented by their flagbearer Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda who competed as alpine skier.
caption: Tour of Eritrea cycling competition in Asmara, Eritrea.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 70D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:09 08:57:08", "Image Artist": "Carlos Oliveira Reis", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2308", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "13556", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "13670", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9962", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:04:24 09:09:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:04:24 09:09:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "85/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "14", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "14", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "14", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5472", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3648", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "13424", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5472000/899", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3648000/599", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "68BD0844303C46DFB2C2AFCC4478254B", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "058022001330", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 200, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "00004f83bd", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4032"}