Hunegnaw Mesfin

Who is Hunegnaw Mesfin?

Hunegnaw Mesfin is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in cross country and track running events. He has represented his country at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and won medals in the senior and junior team categories.

Mesfin won his first major medal at the 2007 African Junior Championships in Athletics, taking the 10,000 metres silver medal behind Kenya's Mathew Kisorio. His first year of global competition came in 2008. He was eleventh in the junior race at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – a performance which helped Ethiopia to the team silver medals. He just missed out on a medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics, finishing fourth behind fellow Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan. He competed for Ethiopia at the International Chiba Ekiden and won his race stage, helping the national team to the title. He ended the year with a third place finish at the inaugural Bahir Dar Cross Country.

Mesfin started 2009 with a win at the Sululta Cross Country in the junior section. He competed as a senior at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, however, and his tenth place performance brought the Ethiopian men second place in the team rankings. He began to compete on the senior European cross country circuit at the end of that year and took a significant victory at the Cross Internacional Zornotza in January 2010, coming out on top of a photo finish with Gebre Gebremariam, the reigning world champion. He celebrated his 21st birthday with a second high profile victory, this time at the Cinque Mulini. In spite of these performances, he failed to match his placing of the previous year at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he ended the race in the nineteenth place as Ethiopia took the bronze behind Kenya and Eritrea.