Meseret Defar

Meseret Defar
Meseret Defar at the 2010 World Indoor Championships
Full name	Meseret Defar Tola
nation	Ethiopia
birthday	November 19, 1983
place of birth	Addis Ababa
size	155 cm
Weight	45 kg
Career
discipline	Long distance running
Best performance	14: 12.88 min ( 5000 m ) 29: 59.20 min ( 10,000 m )
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 1 × World championships 2 × 1 × 2 × Indoor World Cup 4 × 1 × 1 × African Championships 1 × 3 × 0 × Pan-African. Games 2 × 0 × 0 × Junior World Championship 2 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Athens 2004 5000 m bronze Beijing 2008 5000 m gold London 2012 5000 m  World championships silver Helsinki 2005 5000 m gold Osaka 2007 5000 m bronze Berlin 2009 5000 m bronze Daegu 2011 5000 m gold Moscow 2013 5000 m  Indoor world championships bronze Birmingham 2003 3000 m gold Budapest 2004 3000 m gold Moscow 2006 3000 m gold Valencia 2008 3000 m gold Doha 2010 3000 m silver Istanbul 2012 3000 m  African Championships silver Algiers 2000 5000 m gold Bambous 2006 5000 m silver Addis Ababa 2008 5000 m silver Nairobi 2010 5000 m  Africa Games gold Abuja 2003 5000 m gold Algiers 2007 5000 m  Junior World Championships silver Santiago 2000 5000 m gold Kingston 2002 3000 m gold Kingston 2002 5000 m
last change: September 9, 2013

Meseret Defar Tola ( Amharic : መሰረት ደፋር; born November 19, 1983 in Addis Ababa ) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner . She was twice Olympic champion and twice world champion in the 5000 meter run .

Career

She had international success early on: she first became vice junior world champion in the 3000 meter run in 1999 and finally junior world champion over 5000 meters in the 5000 meter run in 2000 and 2002. Her first big success in the adult area was the bronze medal at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham over 3000 meters. At the World Indoor Championships in Budapest in 2004 , she won the title over the same distance.

The first highlight of her career was the 5000 meter run at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , where she won gold in front of Isabella Ochichi (KEN) and her compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba . At the US indoor meeting Boston Indoor Games 2005 she missed the world record set by Berhane Adere over 3000 meters by only nine tenths of a second with 8: 30.05 minutes . At the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki she had to be content with the silver medal - behind her 20-year-old compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba, who had won the bronze medal in Athens.

At the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow , she defended her title over 3000 meters. At the Carlsbad 5000 she set an unofficial world best time in the 5 km road race with 14:46 minutes , and on June 3 of this year she ran a world record in the 5000 at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City with 14:24.53 minutes. Meter run, 15 hundredths of a second faster than Elvan Abeylegesse's old record .

In 2007, she turned over 3000 meters with 8: 23.72 minutes a World Indoor record, finished second at the World's Best 10K , defended her title in Carlsbad and improved in the IAAF Golden League belonging Bislett Games in Oslo her own world record by almost eight seconds on 14: 16.63 min. Over two miles she improved the world best time twice and stayed in Brussels on September 14 with 8: 58.58 minutes as the first woman under nine minutes (no official world records are held over this distance).

At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka , she won the world championship title in the 5000-meter run for the first time. At the end of the year she was voted athlete of the year . In the following season she set a world record over two miles in the hall and at the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon in 2008 she won the 3000 meters for the fourth time in a row. At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 she was denied another victory, but she was able to win the bronze medal over 5000 meters behind Tirunesh Dibaba and Elvan Abeylegesse.

In 2009 she set an indoor world record over 5000 meters with 14: 24.37 minutes and improved her two-mile record to 9: 06.26 minutes. At the World Championships in Berlin she won bronze over 5000 meters and was fifth over 10,000 meters . In 2010 she won again gold over 3000 meters at the World Indoor Championships in Doha and won the Carlsbad 5000 for the third time. A silver medal over 5000 meters at the African Athletics Championships in Nairobi was followed by a 3000 meter victory at the Athletics Continental Cup in Split . She started a half marathon for the first time and immediately ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon with 1:07:45 h, the fastest time on US soil at the time. At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu , she won bronze over 5000 meters.

In 2012 Defar won silver over 3000 m at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul . Eight years after her first Olympic success, she won Olympic gold again in the 5000 meter final at the 2012 Olympic Games in London . In 2013 she became world champion over 5000 meters for the second time in Moscow .

Meseret Defar is 1.55 m tall and weighs 45 kg.

Personal bests

Meseret Defar at the World Indoor Championships in 2008

• 1500 m : 4:02.00 min, June 12, 2010, New York City
• 2000 m : 5: 45.62 min, June 8, 2008, Eugene
• 3000 m: 8: 24.51 min, September 14, 2007, Brussels (split time, Ethiopian record)
  • Hall: 8: 23.72 min, February 3, 2007, Stuttgart (former world record)
• 2 miles : 8: 58.58 min, September 14, 2007, Brussels (world record)
  • Hall: 9: 06.26 min, February 26, 2009, Prague (former world record )
• 5000 m: 14: 12.88 min, July 22, 2008, Stockholm
  • Hall: 14: 24.37 min, February 18, 2009, Stockholm (former world record)
• 10,000 m: 29: 59.20 min, July 11th 2009, Birmingham
• 10-km- road race : 32:08 min, February 25th 2007, San Juan
• Half Marathon: 1:07:45 h, September 19, 2010, Philadelphia

Web links

Commons : Meseret Defar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Meseret Defar in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Meseret Defar in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ IAAF: Women's 5000 m Final . August 23, 2004
2. ^ IAAF: Defar runs fastest ever women's 5 km in Carlsbad . April 10, 2006
3. ^ IAAF: Meseret Defar runs 5000 m World Record in New York - 14: 24.53 . June 3, 2006
4. ↑ IAAF: 8: 23.72 3000 m World indoor record for Defar in Stuttgart ( Memento from February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). February 3, 2007
5. ^ IAAF: Defar retains Carlsbad title . April 2, 2007
6. ^ IAAF: Defar slashes World 5000 m record in Oslo - IAAF Golden League . June 15, 2007
7. ^ IAAF: Defar sets world two-miles best in Carson . May 21, 2007
8. ^ IAAF: Defar destroys World best in Brussels, Richards and Isinbayeva one step from $ 1 million - IAAF Golden League . September 14, 2007
9. ↑ Osaka 2007 - Women's 5000 m: Defar was '100 per cent sure of personal triumph'
10. ↑ Leichtathletik.de: The world athletes of the year . November 25, 2007
11. ^ IAAF: Defar runs 9: 10.50 Two Miles World best in Boston . January 27, 2008
12. ^ IAAF: Defar's World indoor 5000 m record sets the Globe abuzz . February 19, 2009
13. ^ IAAF: Defar runs 9: 06.26 Two Miles World best in Prague . February 26, 2009
14. ^ IAAF: Defar and Kipchoge prevail in Carlsbad . April 12, 2010
15. ^ IAAF: Defar clocks 1:07:44 in Half Marathon debut in Philadelphia . 20th September 2010
16. ↑ Leichtathletik.de: Strong half-marathon debut by Meseret Defar . 20th September 2010
17. ↑ HDsports.at: Ethiopians get third gold , August 10, 2012