(ማስታወቂያ)
Just when it seems like Ethiopia’s future in the athletics world seems dim and done, there comes along young incredible athletes that prove although struggling, Ethiopia will keep shining on the stages of international athletics. What makes this phenomenon so much more amazing is it keeps happening in both genders, and has been going on for decades. Just in recent years, the international sports community has been witnessing yet other young Ethiopian athletes dominating multiple running events on different stages. One of these young athletes is Letesnbet Gidey, whose first international race happened just 7 years ago on March 28, 2015 in Guiyang China, on the stage of World Cross Country Championships. She introduced herself to the world by winning the gold medal of the U20 6km race. This happened just eight days after her 17th birthday, making her the youngest junior women's winner after 15 years.
Letesenbet Gidey was born on March 20, 1998 in a town called Endamseskel, located in Tigray region. Letesenbet grew up with her two brothers and her sister on her family’s farm. She never aspired to be an athlete, rather she focused on her studies and was even expelled from school for refusing to participate in a running activity during her physical education class. She agreed to run for the sake of her education and returned to school. It is safe to say she fell in love with running after that considering later, in late 2012, in the Ethiopian Schools Championships in Shashemane, she won the 2000 and 3000 meter steeplechase double for the Tigray region.
Letesenbet’s Junior career lasted from 2014 to 2017, and her senior career started in 2018 and is still going on. On June 14 2014, Letesenbet, who was 16 at the time finished third in the 5000-meter race at the Ethiopian Championships with a timing of 16:19.30. She came in following Almaz Ayana, who won in 16:11.40. In 2015 February 1, with a timing of 20:30, she won in the junior 6 km race at the Jan Meda International Cross Country in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's trials for the World Cross Country Championships, Following that Letesenbet Gidey qualified for her first ever international competition, the 2015 Guiyang, China’s World Cross Country Championships. A stage on which she triumphed by completing the 6.03 km route in 19:48 to win the world under-20 title. Together with her Ethiopian teammates, Letesenbet also won the team championship with a perfect individual podium sweep.
On 21 June of the same year, she finished first in the 5000-meter race in Bottrop, Germany, with a timing of 15:39.83. Even though she was disqualified from this race for standing on a marking on the track and didn’t get to stand on the podium during the award ceremony, she was able to appeal this decision stating that standing on the marking didn’t give her any advantage over the rest of the athletes. Her appeal was accepted and she was reinstated the winner of the race. Letesenbet’s last international competition for the year 2015 was a 3000 meters under-20 girl’s race held in Cali, Columbia. She finished the race in fourth place with a timing of 9:04.64.
On May 22 of 2016, Letesenbet Gidey won the 5000 meters Gold medal in Fanny Blankers-Koen Games (FBK games) which is held annually in Hengelo, Netherlands. On June 30 2016, she would go on to win the 10000 meters track event with a time of 14:45.63. A race multiple records holder Genzebe Dibaba quitted after 3600 meters. On February 13, 2017 in Addis Abeba, she took first place in the junior women's race in the Ethiopian Cross Country Championships. And in the same year at the World Cross Country Championship in Kampala, Uganda, on March 26, Letesenbet successfully defended her junior championship of the 6 km circuit. At 19 years old, Letesenbet qualified for the 10,000 meters finals of the World championships which was held in London. She would finish 11th from 14 competitors with a time of 15:04.99.
2017 was the last year of Letesenbet’s junior career as she would start her senior years in 2018. Letesenbet took first place in the 6 km race at the sixth IAAF Cross Country Permit leg at San Vittore Olona, Italy, in February. 18:14 was her winning time.
And on May 26 2018, at 5000 meters race at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, U.S. she came in second place with a time of 14:30.29, following the other Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba who won the race in 14:26.89. On February 10 2019 Letesenbet participated in the 10 km run at the Jan Meda Cross Country Championships in Addis Abeba, coming in second with a timing of 35:55. Dera Dida finished first in the competition in 35:50. Letesenbet ran in the senior race at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. She earned the bronze medal finishing at 36:24. On May 8, she competed in and won the 10,000-meter event at the Ethiopian Championships in Addis Abeba in a time of 32:10.2. on May 19 2019 Letesenbet competed in the 10 km road competition in Bengaluru, India and came in second. The Ethiopian athlete Senbere Teferi took third place, and Agnes Tirop of Kenya took first place. Each of the three women completed the race in 33:55.
On June 30 2019, She finished third in the 3000 meters event in the Diamond League Prefontaine Classic meet in Stanford, California, in a time of 8:20.27, a new outdoor record for Africa. Siffan Hassan won the race with a new European record of 8:18.49. The top seven athletes achieved their new personal best in that race. Letesenbet won the 10,000-meter track competition on July 17 2019 in Hengelo, Netherlands, with a timing of 30:37.89. Letesenbet was placed second in the 5000 meters race at the Diamond League final in Brussels in a time of 14:29.54. In 14:26.26, Sifan Hassan took first place.
Letesenbet finished second in the 10,000 m at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, on September 28 with a personal best of 30:21.23. Hassan won the event in a new Dutch national record time of 30:17.33. Agnes Tirop finished third in 30:25.50. Letesenbet broke Joyciline Jepkosgei's previous record from 2017 by one minute and 17 seconds on November 17, 2019, during the Zevenheuvelenloop road race in Nijmegen, Netherlands. She also became the first woman to complete a 15-kilometer race in less than 45 minutes. She cut Tirunesh Dibaba's 2009 world record by more than 2 minutes, which Tirunesh also set at the Zevenheuvelenloop in 46:28 and was a 27-second improvement over the previous record at the time. She received a prize of 50,000 euros for her world record. Letesenbet lost to Hellen Obiri, who set a meet record in the 5000-meter race at the Monaco Diamond League competition on August 14 2020, 14:26.57 to 14:22.12, in that race.
The then 22-year-old Letesenbet shattered Tirunesh Dibaba's 2008 record in the 5000 meters on October 7, 2020, at the NN Valencia World Record Day meet, shaving more than 4 seconds off the time to stop the clock at 14m 6.62s. Sifan Hassan established a 10,000 m world record on June 6 2021 in 29:06.82. Letesenbet set a new record at the Ethiopian trials on the same track just two days later, breaking Hassan's previous mark by over four seconds with a time of 29m 1.03s, running the final lap in 1m 3s. Letesenbet competed in the 10000 meters event in the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in August, winning the bronze with a timing of 30:01.72. Letesenbet ran her first half marathon on October 24, 2021, and finished in 62 minutes and 52 seconds at the Valencia Half Marathon, breaking the previous world record held by the Kenyan Ruth Chepng'etich by 70 seconds (52 seconds above an unofficial mark set by Yalemzerf Yehualaw). At the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2022, Letesenbet won her first international senior title as well as her first international track title.
She achieved a world-leading time of 30:09.94 to win the 10,000 meters gold ahead of Hellen Obiri in 30:10.02 and Margaret Kipkemboi in 30:10.07 in a nail-biting finish. The top 3 were only separated by 0.13 second. She also participated in the 5000 meters competition seven days later and placed fifth. The 24-year-old Letesenbet made her highly anticipated marathon debut and came in second place with time of 2:16:49, following the other Ethiopian athlete Amane Beriso.
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