Career
Genzebe won the junior women's title at both the 2008 and 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and finished fifth in the same event in 2007. Genzebe became the second junior woman ever to win two junior cross country championships in a row. She has also competed in IAAF Golden League meetings, including the Reebok Grand Prix and the Oslo Bislett Games. At the 2008 Bislett Games she recorded a personal best time of 15:02.41 in the 5000 metres, during the same race where her sister Tirunesh set a new world record. She did the same a year later in the same race, improving her personal best by more than five seconds.
After winning the 5000 m at the Ethiopian Athletics Championships, she was included in the Ethiopian squad for the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships. In Berlin she replaced Tirunesh on Ethiopia's 5000 m team, who withdrew due to injury. Genzebe ran an excellent heat, finishing fourth and qualifying for the final where, in her first major senior championship race, she finished in an impressive eighth position. She also won the 5000 m gold at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships.
She began her 2009–10 cross country campaign with a win at the Cross de Atapuerca. She also competed indoors, improving her 1500 m best to 4:04.80 at the Indoor Flanders meeting. Despite her wins on the senior circuit, she failed to complete a hat-trick of junior race titles at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She performed far below expectations, ending up in eleventh and barely making it into the silver medal winning Ethiopian team. Her fortunes improved at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics as she defeated the junior cross country winner Mercy Cherono to take the 5000 m gold in a championship record time. In November she took a second consecutive victory at the Cross de Atapueca, taking a prominent scalp in Emily Chebet (the reigning senior champion). She was the runner-up at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country in January 2011 behind Linet Masai. She placed ninth at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships two months later.
Genzebe improved her 5000 m best to 14:37.56 minutes at the Bislett Games and went on to place eighth in the event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. After this point she began to move away from the 5000 m an focus on the 1500 metres instead – a move which paid significant dividends for her career. She began 2012 with the fifth fastest ever indoor 1500 m, winning the Weltklasse in Karlsruhe in 4:00.13 minutes. A win at the Aviva Indoor Grand Prix preceded her first world title at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Turning to the outdoor track, she ran an Ethiopian record time of 3:57.77 minutes at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix. She was third at the Golden Gala and runner-up at the Bislett Games. She was selected for the 2012 London Olympics, but a hamstring injury in the final lap of her heat saw her eliminated from the competition.
Genzebe opened 2013 on grass, winning the 3 km competition at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country, then took two indoor wins in Karlsruhe and Birmingham.
Read more about this topic: Genzebe Dibaba
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