Meskerem Assefa Legesse Wondimagegn (born 20 September 1985 in Robe, Arsi)Meskerem Assefa
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2013-02-18. is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She represented Ethiopia at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She has personal bests including 4:02.12 minutes for 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 Athle ...

, 8:46.37 minutes for the 3000 metres and 2:25:11 hours for the marathon. Meskerem competes principally in the 1500 m. She is a two-time participant at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

and was the silver medallist at the

2008 African Championships in Athletics The 16th African Championships in Athletics was held in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, from April 30 to May 4, 2008. The competition venue was the Addis Ababa Stadium. It is the largest Athletics event held in Ethiopia to date. It was t ...

Career

Meskerem started running middle-distance races in 2001 and while in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

in 2003 she ran an

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 t ...

best of 2:01.11 minutes and a

best of 4:03.96 minutes. She was mainly based in the United States until 2007.Meskerem Assefa
IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-02-19. A win at the All-Ethiopian Games in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

and a runner-up finish at the

Ethiopian Athletics Championships The Ethiopian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Ethiopia. The competition was first held in 1971.

brought her a place at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games took place between 11 and 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers is the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were held there. Besides Algeria, only Nig ...

, where she placed fourth with a run of 4:09.83 minutes. The following year brought her first major senior medal – she was the silver medallist behind

Gelete Burka Gelete Burka Bati (sometimes misspelled ''Burika'', Oromo: Galate Burqaa Baati, Amharic: ገለቴ ቡርቃ; born 23 January 1986) is an Ethiopian middle-distance and long-distance runner. She was born in Kofele in the Arsi Zone of the Oromi ...

in the 1500 m at the

. On the Brazilian athletics circuit she had three straight wins including a personal best of 2:02.12 minutes in the 800 m in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. Her best run in the 1500 m that season was 4:05.67 minutes, which came at a meeting in

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway bet ...

. She was chosen to represent

Ethiopia at the 2008 Summer Olympics Ethiopia competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. 10,000 m runner Tirunesh Dibaba ran the second fastest 10,000 metres of all time, setting an Olympic record of 29 minutes, ...

, but she was eliminated in the first round of heats. A runner-up finish at the national championships earned her a place at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

. She passed the first round, but did not start in the semi-final. Her best 1500 m that year (4:05.99) was at the

Prefontaine Classic The Prefontaine Classic, an Oregon Track Club event, is one of the premier track and field meets in the United States, held in Eugene, Oregon. Every year it draws a world caliber field to compete at Hayward Field on the campus of the University ...

in Eugene, Oregon, and she also set a 3000 metres personal best of 8:46.37 minutes at the Meeting Lille Metropole. Her major competition of 2010 was 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 ...

, where she was fifth over 1500 m. In the first half of the year she began to move away from middle-distance towards long-distance running: she was runner-up at the Le Mans Cross Country, set a 5000 metres time of 15:03.49 minutes for third at the

GE Galan The Globen Galan is an annual indoor athletics event held in February at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting was first held in 1990 and from 2000 to 2010 known as GE Galan, because General Electric was the official title sponsor. ...

, won the Cooper River Bridge Run with a run of 32:31 minutes for the 10K, and had third-place finishes at the Carlsbad 5000 and Crescent City Classic 5K road races. In spite of success in longer races, Meskerem focused on the 1500 m in 2011 and achieved her best results yet. She ran a career best of 4:03.63 minutes for second at the

Colorful Daegu Championships Meeting The Colorful Daegu Championships Meeting was an annual track and field competition at the Daegu Stadium in Daegu, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part o ...

, then improved this further to 4:02.12 minutes as runner-up at the

Golden Gala Golden Gala is an annual track and field event normally held at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. Following the 2013 death of Italian sprinting legend Piet ...

IAAF 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. She ran 4:06.32 for another second place at the Brazzaville meeting and placed seventh with a run of 4:04.48 minutes at the top level Herculis meet. She ranked second to Kalkidan Gezahegne among Ethiopian runners that year. She was again chosen to represent Ethiopia on the global stage, but was eliminated in the heats of the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

. She again placed fourth in the 1500 m at the 2011 All-Africa Games, just finishing off the podium. At the start of 2012 she ran indoor bests of 4:07.65 minutes for the 1500 m and 8:53.18 minutes for the 3000 m. Outdoors, her season's best came in Daegu, where she repeated her placing of the previous year, coming second in 4:06.52 minutes. Meskerem's second Olympic appearance followed at the 2012 London Games, but again she did not progress beyond the heats of the 1500 m. After the Olympics she placed second at the

DécaNation DécaNation is an annual track and field meeting organized by the French Athletics Federation (Fédération Française d'Athlétisme) since 2005. The competition comprises national teams of athletes competing in a decathlon, with each athlete compet ...

competition. Meskerem made a significant, and successful, step up in distance at the beginning of 2013 as she entered the

Houston Marathon The Houston Marathon is an annual marathon usually held every January in Houston, Texas, United States, since 1972. With thousands of runners and spectators, it is the largest single day sporting event in the city. It is run concurrently wi ...

and finished in third place with a time of 2:25:17 hours. Three months later she was runner-up to Flomena Cheyech at the

Vienna Marathon The Vienna City Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of 42.195 km held in Vienna, Austria since 1984. History The first edition was held on with a total of 794 competitors. It is Austria's largest road running event ...

.Wenig, Jörg (2013-04-14)
Hat trick wins for Sugut and Gebrselassie in Vienna
IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-04-17.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assefa, Meskerem 1985 births Living people Ethiopian female middle-distance runners Ethiopian female long-distance runners Ethiopian female marathon runners Olympic athletes for Ethiopia Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Oromia Region 21st-century Ethiopian women