World 5,000m champion Gudaf Tsegay wiped 10 sec off her personal best to win the 10,000m in 29:29.73 min at Ethiopia’s national qualifiers for the Budapest World Championships in the Spanish city of Nerja.
Gudaf Tsegay topped the world rankings for the season with this result, and the race was held on her 26th birthday. Gudaf Tsegay was almost half a minute ahead of the next in the ranking – Ejgayehu Taye (29:57.45 min), as well as the world indoor 3,000m champion Lemlem Hailu (29:59.15 min).
Gudaf Tsegay’s result is the fourth fastest time in the history of the discipline.
Gudaf Tsegay is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She is the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist in the women’s 5,000m. At the World Athletics Championships, she won a bronze for the 1,500m in 2019, and silver in this event and gold for the 5,000m in 2022. She is a two-time World Indoor Championship 1,500m medalist, claiming bronze in 2016 and gold in 2022. She is the world indoor record holder for the 1,500m, setting previously in this event world under-18 (current) and U20 (former) records. At age 16, Gudaf Tsegay represented Ethiopia in the 1,500m at the 2014 World Indoor Championships. That same year, the 17-year-old won the silver medal in the discipline at the World U20 Championships.
