Dejen Gebremeskel sports discipline competed in 5K run
Dejen Gebremeskel (born 24 November 1989) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who primarily competes in track events. His personal best of 12:46.81 minutes for the 5000 metres ranks him as the fifth fastest of all time for the distance. He was the 5000 m silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics and took the bronze medal over that distance at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.
He won his first track medals as a junior, coming second at the African Junior Athletics Championships, then taking the bronze medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He was a finalist at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 2010 and 2012. He is a five-time winner of the Carlsbad 5000.Career
Junior career
Dejen Gebremeskel grew up in the rural setting of Ethiopia's Gulo-Makeda woreda and took up running as a child, representing his school. He began competing around the Tigray Region and after establishing himself in local races, he moved to Addis Ababa to train with the national team.He won his first international medal at the 2007 African Junior Athletics Championships, taking the silver medal over 5000 metres behind Mathew Kisorio. He had also competed abroad for the first time that year, running a personal best of 13:21.05 minutes to take sixth in the 5000 m at the Flanders Cup meeting in Brasschaat. He ran for Ethiopia at the International Chiba Ekiden in 2008 and helped the team to victory, running the fastest time for his leg of the road relay.Representing the Ethiopian Banks team, he won the junior title at the 2007 Addis Ababa cross country race, beating Hunegnaw Mesfin by a second. He was fourth in the junior category at the 2008 Ethiopian Cross Country Championships and was selected for the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he finished 18th (just outside the Ethiopian team which won the silver medal). Back on the track, he ran at the Adidas Track Classic in May and set a new personal best of 13:08.96 minutes, second only to Ali Abdosh. He was among the fastest entrants at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and took the 5000 m bronze medal while his compatriot Abreham Cherkos won the gold.Start of senior career
At the 2009 Ethiopian cross country trials in February, he came in third place. His main focus for the year was on track races and he had a successful transition into the senior ranks, winning at the Adidas Track Classic in May then improved his 5000 m best to 13:03.13 min by taking third at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City, where he was beaten only by Olympic medalists Micah Kogo and Bernard Lagat. He ran a 3000 metres best of 7:58.69 m at the Prefontaine Classic and came fourth at that year's London Grand Prix.Dejen competed indoors for the first time the following year and was second at the Boston Indoor Games behind Lagat. He was also the runner-up at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix two weeks later and was selected to represent Ethiopia over 3000 m at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He ran the second fastest qualifying time (a personal best of 7:44.26 min), but did not perform as well in the event final, coming tenth. Outdoors, he was second at the Carlsbad 5000, the Prefontaine Classic, and the DN Galan (at which he ran a personal best of 12:53.56 min for the 5000 m).
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