Diribe Welteji Kejelcha (born 13 May 2002) is an Ethiopian

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

. She won the silver medal in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

at the 2023 World Championships and placed fourth in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

at the 2022 World Championships. At age 16, Welteji won the 800 m at the 2018 World U20 Championships, breaking the championship record in the process. She took silver for the

at the 2021 World U20 Championships.

Career

A 16-year-old Diribe Welteji won the gold medal for the 800 m event at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, where she also competed in the women's 4 × 400 m relay without reaching the final, but achieving an Ethiopian junior record. In 2019, she won a gold in the

at the African U20 Championships, finished sixth in the 800 m event at the

African Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (AN ...

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

, and was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 800 m event at the Doha World Championships. The 19-year-old competed without success in the women's 1500 m at the delayed

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

in August 2021, but the same month took silver in this

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of eve ...

at the World U20 Championships held in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. Welteji placed fourth in the

800 m The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

at the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the f ...

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

in July with a time of 1:57.02. In August, she won her first

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

meeting with a 1500 m victory, beating her esteemed compatriot

Gudaf Tsegay Gudaf Tsegay Desta (born 23 January 1997) is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist in the women's 5000 metres. At the World Athletics Championships, she won a bronze for the 1500 metres i ...

at the

Kamila Skolimowska Memorial The Kamila Skolimowska Memorial (or Kamila Skolimowska Throwing Festival) is an annual track and field meeting held at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów, Poland in July, organized by the Kamila Skolimowska Foundation. The inaugural edition took p ...

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

, Poland. Welteji improved her personal best by more than two seconds and set a meet record with 3:56.91. On October 1, 2023, Welteji broke the 1 mile women's road record by running 4:20.98 in Riga at the World Athletics Road Running Championships.

Achievements

International competitions

Circuit wins

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

: Chorzów Kamila Skolimowska Memorial (1500m, )

Personal bests

– 1:57.02 (

Eugene, OR Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

July 2022) *

– 3:53.93 (

September 2023) **

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

indoor – 8:33.44 (

Val-de-Reuil Val-de-Reuil () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in north-western France. It is located south of Rouen in a loop of the Seine. Created as the new town of Le Vaudreuil in 1972, its name was changed to Val-de-Reuil in 1984 to avoid co ...

February 2023)

References

2002 births Living people Ethiopian female middle-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 African Games African Games competitors for Ethiopia Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Ethiopia 21st-century Ethiopian women 21st-century Ethiopian people World Athletics Championships medalists {{Ethiopia-athletics-bio-stub