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For Amanal Petros, running is currently only a minor matter - and a distraction.

Germany’s new marathon record holder is desperately looking for his mother and two sisters, who have disappeared in the Ethiopian war region of Tigray.

The 25-year-old has not had any contact for seven weeks.

“My family is a part of my life, I also feel great pain, I am very worried.

It's bad what happened there.

Innocent people are being killed there, ”complains Petros in an interview with the German Press Agency.

Amanal Petros has lived and trained in Germany since 2012

Source: dpa / Roland Weihrauch

The three women could have been in Sudan long ago, in a refugee camp.

"But I do not know.

The flight itself is a risk, ”says the young man.

"And for me, too, the risk of going there would be simply too great."

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The crisis area is cut off from the outside world, around 70,000 Ethiopians are said to have fled to neighboring Sudan.

Petros turned on the Red Cross, and German friends also help him.

Petros is the new German record holder

Born in Eritrea, Petros grew up in Ethiopia.

At the age of 16 he set out on his own as a refugee and came to Germany in January 2012.

He was naturalized on October 27, 2015.

Two and a half weeks ago, the athlete from TV Wattenscheid 01 in Valencia improved the German marathon record by 75 seconds to 2:07:18 hours.

Petros had already met the standard time for the Olympic Games in Japan last year.

He was already running the race in Valencia with worried thoughts.

"I can not reach my family for four weeks," he reported on Instagram.

“With this uncertainty as to whether my family and friends are okay or not, I'll run my second marathon in Valencia on Sunday.

I will face it courageously and think of my people who died for no reason or had to flee. "

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