Lamecha Girma (born 26 November 2000) is an Ethiopian

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...

who specialises in the

3000 metres steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 metres, which derives its name from the ...

. He is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the event and won silver medals at the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

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 ...

. Lamecha took also a silver in the

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 ...

at the 2022 World Indoor Championships. He is the world indoor record holder for the

, which was set in February 2023, and holds Ethiopian record in the 3000 m steeplechase.

Career

At age 18, Lamecha Girma earned the junior bronze medal in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2019 African Under-20 Championships. The same year, he set an Ethiopian national record in his specialist event during the

World Athletics Championships 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 ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the c ...

with a time of 8:1.36. He finished second behind only Olympic and world champion

Conseslus Kipruto Conseslus Kipruto (born 8 December 1994) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He was the 2016 Rio Olympic champion in the event. At the World Athletics Championships, Kipruto won gold medals in 2 ...

who ran 8:01.35;

Soufiane El Bakkali Soufiane El Bakkali ( ar, سفيان البقالي, born 7 January 1996) is a Moroccan male runner specializing in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He is the Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion, having previously fin ...

came third in 8:03.76. 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 List of Olympic Games h ...

in 2021, Lamecha won the silver medal with a 8:10.38 clocking. This time El Bakkali finished first in 8:08.90 while third-placed Benjamin Kigen achieved 8:11.45. Girma became 2022 World Indoor Championship silver medallist at the

in Belgrade. He ran 7:41.63 while his compatriot

Selemon Barega Selemon Barega Shirtaga (born 20 January 2000) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and a silver for the 5000 metres at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Barega is a tw ...

clocked 7:41.38 for gold, and Marc Scott was third in 7:42.02. A few months later in July, 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, ...

held in

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 ...

, Girma had to settle for silver once again in his signature event, finishing behind El Bakkali who ran 8:25.13 and ahead of Kipruto in third in 8:27.92. On 15 February 2023, he smashed the 25-year-old world indoor 3000 m record at the

Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais The Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais (formerly Meeting Pas de Calais) also called Meeting International de Liévin (''International Meeting of Liévin'') is an annual indoor track and field competition which takes place in February in Liévin ...

Liévin Liévin (; pcd, Lévin; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The inhabitants are called ''Liévinois''. Overview The town of Liévin is an old mining area of Pas-de-Calais. Near Lens, this town is of modest size bu ...

with a time of 7:23.81, slicing 1.09 seconds off the previous mark held by

Daniel Komen Daniel Kipngetich Komen (born 17 May 1976) Komen is rumoured to be three years older than officially recognised. is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Remembered for his rivalry with Haile Gebrselassie, Komen's most notable achievemen ...

since 1998.

International competitions

Circuit wins

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 ...

:: 3000 metres steeplechase wins, other events specified in parenthesis :*

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

: Monaco Herculis :*

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

: Rome Golden Gala

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 Athle ...

– 3:33.77 (

2020) ** 1500 metres indoor – 3:35.60 ( Val-de-Reuil 2021) *

2000 metres The 2000 metres or 2000-metre run is a track running event where five laps are completed around an outdoor 400 m track, or ten laps around a 200 m indoor track - the distance is 11.68 meters short of 1¼ miles. The global governing body World Ath ...

– 4:57.87 (

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

2020) **

indoor – 7:23.81 (

2023)

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 organizati ...

– 7:58.68 (

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four ri ...

2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Girma, Lamecha Ethiopian male steeplechase runners 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Oromia Region World Athletics Championships athletes for Ethiopia World Athletics Championships medalists Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Ethiopia Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic athletes of Ethiopia World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists 21st-century Ethiopian people