Elias Makori
18 December 2011
Meselech Melkamu Haileyesus’ humble demeanour can be deceiving.
Off the track, the girl from Debre Markos, 360 kilometres from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is extremely shy, but on the track, she is devastating.
Born on April 19, 1985, Meselech has on several occasions upstaged the golden girls of Ethiopian athletics – Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba – and her discipline, respect and humble nature makes her more popular than the celebrated duo in Ethiopian athletics circles.
The chief guest at last week’s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya), Meselech revealed that after her final track appearance, hopefully, at the London Olympics next summer, she would be switching to the marathon.
“I hope to make it to the London Olympics and after that, I will change to marathon running,'” said Melkamu whose astonishing 29:53.80, clocked in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in June 2009, is the second fastest ever time in the women’s 10,000m after China’s Wang Junxia’s world record of 29:31.78 run way back in September 1993.
Meselech’s switch to the marathon will definitely make her father, retired military man and former marathon runner, Melkamu Haileyesus, a very proud man indeed.
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