Meselech Melkamu born 27 April 1985 in

Debre Marqos Debre Markos ( am, ደብረ ማርቆስ, Däbrä Marḳos lit: ''Mount of St. Mark'') is a city, separate woreda, and administrative seat of the East Gojjam Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Etymology Originally named Manqwarar (lit: Cold Plac ...

) is an Ethiopian

long-distance Long distance or Long-distance may refer to: *Long-distance calling * Long-distance operator * Long-distance relationship * Long-distance train *Long-distance anchor pylon, see dead-end tower Footpaths * Long-distance trail *European long-d ...

runner. She defeated

Meseret Defar Meseret Defar Tola (Amharic: መሠረት ደፋር; born 19 November 1983) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes chiefly in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres events. She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including O ...

to win the 5000 metres

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the 2008 African Athletics Championships, but she is better known for her 29:53.80 run over 10,000 metres in 2009, which until August 2016 ranked her second on the all-time list behind

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

holder

Wang Junxia Wang Junxia (; born January 19, 1973) is a Chinese former long-distance runner who is the current world record holder at 3,000 meters. She also held the world record for the 10,000 meters for 23 years, between 1993 and 2016. Her best years lay ...

. She is one of seven woman in history to break the 30-minute barrier and one of four Ethiopians to accomplish the feat. Since 2012, she has competed in road races. She won the 2012

Frankfurt Marathon The Frankfurt Marathon (official name as of 2016: Mainova Frankfurt Marathon, until 2015: BMW Frankfurt Marathon, until 2010: Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon) is a marathon which has taken place every year in Frankfurt am Main since its inception i ...

in a course record and personal best of 2:21:01 hours.

Career

She made her breakthrough in the junior ranks in 2004 by winning the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

and taking the 5000 metres title at the

World Junior Championships in Athletics The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the ye ...

. She just missed the senior medals in 2005, taking fourth in the short race at the World Cross Country Championships and fourth in the 5000 metres at the

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, ...

. Her first major medals as a senior athlete came the following year as Melkamu won

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

s in both the long and short races at the

2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on April 1/2, 2006. The races were held at the Umi-no-nakamichi Seaside Park in Fukuoka, Japan, Japan's National Cross Country Course which is the permanent residence of the annual Fukuo ...

(also winning two team golds). She went on to win the 10 kilometres

Great Ireland Run The Great Ireland Run is an annual 10-kilometre road running competition which is held in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland in mid-April. It is part of the Great Run series of athletics competitions. It is sponsored by SPAR and features both an elite ...

the following month in an event-record 31:41 minutes finish time.Johannes, Sabrina (31 July 2010)
Focus on Athletes – Meselech Melkamu
IAAF. Retrieved 29 November 2010. She repeated her cross country bronze medal in 2007, helping the Ethiopian women win the team gold again. She also won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

on the track at the

All-Africa 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 ...

, finishing as runner-up behind Meseret Defar in the 5000 metres. She was sixth over that distance at the

later that year. Melkamu won her first indoor medal over

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 ...

in March 2008, again taking the second spot behind Defar at the World Indoor Championships. She did not win a medal at the World Cross Country Championships (finishing in ninth place), but she defeated Defar to win the 5000 metres at the

African Championships An African Championship is a top level international sports competition between African athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships ;Athletics *African Championships in Ath ...

. She was selected to represent Ethiopia at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, finishing seventh in the 5000 metres final in a time of 15:49.03. (She finished the race in eight place but rose to seventh after

Elvan Abeylegesse Elvan Abeylegesse, (also formerly: Hewan Abeye (አልቫን አበይለገሠ, Amharic) and Elvan Can ( Turkish); born September 11, 1982) is an Ethiopian-born naturalized Turkish middle and long-distance running athlete who competes over d ...

's runner-up finish was expunged years later because of doping.) She returned to the podium at the 2009 World Cross Country Championships, taking another bronze medal. On 14 June, she broke the African record in the 10,000 metres with a time of 29:53.80 at a race in

Utrecht, Netherlands Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

, bettering

Tirunesh Dibaba Tirunesh Dibaba ( om, Xirunesh Dibaabaa, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 June 1985) is an Ethiopian athlete who competed in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold medals, ...

's time of 29:54.66. She won her first world track medal later that season, finishing as runner-up to

Linet Masai Linet Chepkwemoi Masai (born 5 December 1989) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes in track and cross country running events. She won her first world title in the 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. ...

in the 10,000 metres at the

. She continued her bronze medal streak at the 2010 World Cross Country Championships. On 31 July, she won a silver medal at the

in Nairobi, finishing second to Dibaba in the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

. To finish the year, she won the

Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race The Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race is an annual 11.25 km mountain running competition that takes place in late November in Obudu, Cross River State, Nigeria. First held in 2005, it has the largest total prize money available of any mo ...

in the Obudu local government area of Nigeria, which doubled as the African Mountain Running Championships. In February 2011, she won her fourth career title at the

Jan Meda International Cross Country The Jan Meda International Cross Country is an annual cross country running competition held at the Jan Meda Race Course in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Typically held in January or February, the event serves as the national championship for Ethiopia a ...

in Addis Ababa. At the 2012 Frankfurt Marathon, her first marathon, she stayed in the lead group until the 37 kilometre mark, after which she pulled away to victory in a new course record of 2:21:01 hours. In February 2013, she ran a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

personal best of 1:08:05 hours while finishing in seventh place at the

Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is an annual half marathon held in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. History The first event, in 2007, saw Samuel Wanjiru breaking the world record, but Wanjiru himself set a new world record only a month later in ...

in the United Arab Emirates.

Personal bests

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 ...

– 4:07.52 (2007) *

Mile run The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to ...

– 4:33.94 (2003) * 2000 metres (indoor) - 5:39.2 (2007) (intermediate time in a longer race) (12th fastest ever as of 2 April 2017) *

(outdoor) - 8:34.73 (2005) * 3000 metres (indoor) - 8:23.74 (2007) (4th fastest ever as of 17 June 2017) *

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

(outdoor) – 14:31.91 (2010) * 10,000 metres (track) – 29:53.80 (2009) (6th fastest ever as of 5 July 2017) * 10 kilometres (road) – 31:17 (2013) (intermediate time in a longer race), 31:41 (2006) * 15 kilometres (road) - 47:54 (2013) (intermediate time in a longer race) * 20 kilometres (road) - 1:04:32 (2013) (intermediate time in a longer race) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

- 1:08:05 (2013) * 30 kilometres (road) - 1:39.21 (2014) (intermediate time in a longer race) *

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

– 2:21:01 (2012)

International competitions

References

External links

*
Focus on athletes – In-depth article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melkamu, Meselech 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Amhara Region Ethiopian female long-distance runners Ethiopian female marathon runners Olympic athletes of Ethiopia Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Ethiopia World Athletics Championships medalists Frankfurt Marathon female winners African Games silver medalists for Ethiopia African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2011 All-Africa Games People from Debre Markos