Alemitu Bekele Degfa

Who is Alemitu Bekele Degfa?

Alemitu Bekele is an Ethiopian-born Turkish long-distance runner, who specializes in the 5000 metres.

Bekele was born in Shoa, Ethiopia. In the 5000 metres she finished seventh at the 2008 Olympic Games. In the 3000 metres she won the gold medal at the 2009 European Indoor Championships, and also competed at the 2008 World Indoor Championships, without reaching the final round.

She set an indoor European record at the beginning of 2010: her time of 14:46.44 at the GE Galan was enough to beat Gabriela Szabo's 11-year-old mark. Despite this achievement, which made her the fifth fastest of all-time over the distance, she finished some twenty seconds adrift of winner Meseret Defar who narrowly missed the world record.

She won the 5000 m at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in a championship-record time of 14 minutes, 52.20 seconds at Barcelona's Olympic stadium. She represented Team Europe at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup and claimed the 3000 m silver medal behind Meseret Defar. She opened her 2011 season at the Cinque Mulini and won the individual title as well as the team title for Üsküdar Belediyespor as part of the European Cross Country Club Championships.