Known for his prowess in the middle and long distances, Gudaf Tsegay Desta was born in Ethiopia on January 23, 1997. She won the bronze medal in the 5000-meter run at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
G. Tsegay Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
In 2019, she took bronze in the 1500-meter run at the World Athletics Championships, and in 2022, she took silver in the 1500 and gold in the 5,000. Tsegay has won two medals at the World Indoor 1500-meter Championships, a bronze in 2016 and a gold in 2022.
She now holds the indoor 1500 metre world record, and she has previously held the under-18 and under-20 world records.
2014 saw her win silver in the 1500-meter event at the World Junior Championships, when she was just 17 years old. At the 2014 World Indoor Championships, she ran the distance for her country.
Tsegay has many strengths as a runner. As of the month of September 2022, she was tenth in the world among women in the indoor 800 metres and sixth in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres.
Gudaf Tsegay Olympic Career
Sweden’s 17-year-old Gudaf Tsegay ran the indoor 1500-meter race in 4 minutes, 8.47 seconds in February 2014, setting a new world record for under-18 athletes. After finishing second to fellow Ethiopian Dawit Seyaum (4:09.86) at the World Junior Championships in Eugene in July, her performance of 4:10.83 earned her silver.
In Glasgow, two years later, Tsegay set a new world under-20 record in this indoor event with a timing of 4 metres, 1 second, and 81 thousandths of a second, besting the previous best achieved by her compatriot Kalkidan Gezahegne in 2010. In 2020, Tsegay’s fellow Ethiopian Lemlem Hailu surpassed her record.
She finished third at the World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, in 4:05.71, behind the Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan (4:04.96) and the Ethiopian Dawit Megersa (4:05.71). (4:05.30). After clocking in at 2:00.13 in her heat, the then-19-year-old Ethiopian athlete was eliminated from the 800 metres competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She ran the 1500-meter race at the 2017 World Championships in London, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals. She tripped on the first lap, causing her to finish the race 13 seconds slower than anyone else and earning her the last place finish.
Tsegay ran a personal best of 3:54.38 in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and earned the bronze medal. Taking second place was Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, who finished a full minute behind Hassan (3:54.22).
After finishing second in the 1500-meter event, she won the World Indoor Tour overall the following year.
2020 will be the Year that the 1500-Meter indoor World Record is set.
At the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin on February 9th, Tsegay set a new indoor 1500 metre world record. Tsegay ran the race in 3 minutes, 53.09 seconds, breaking the previous record established by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia in 2014.
She ran the 5000 metres in 14 minutes, 32 seconds (her personal best) in June to earn bronze in the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in a time of 14 minutes, 38.87 seconds. In a time of 14 minutes, 36 seconds, and 39 seconds, Hassan triumphed. Hellen Obiri of Kenya came in second at 14 minutes, 38 seconds.
World 5000-Meter Champion in 2022
It’s possible that she had Dibaba’s world record of 4:13.31 in mind when she competed in the mile at Liévin, France, in February 2022.
Tsegay fell on the first lap but still managed to complete in 4 minutes, 21 seconds, shattering a meeting record that had stood for twenty years.
The following week, at the Copernicus Cup in Toru, she attempted to break her own world indoor record over 1500 metres and came up only 1.68 seconds short, good enough for second place on the indoor all-time list.
Eight days later, at the Villa de Madrid Indoor Meeting, she easily won the 1500-meter event for the second time on the World Indoor Tour, setting a new meet record of 3:57.38 and becoming seventh on the all-time world indoor list.
In March, Tsegay broke yet another world record in the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, where she also won her individual event.
She won her maiden world championship by a margin of over five seconds (30 m) and set a championship record with her time of 3 minutes, 57.19 seconds. She was the first of three Ethiopians to win medals; Axumawit Embaye and Hirut Meshesha followed in second and third, respectively.
It was the first time ever that a single country swept the medals in any event at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, and the seventh straight win for Ethiopian women.
Conclusion
The World Championships in July in Eugene, Oregon, were the pinnacle of her triumph that year. There, she won two medals, including her first global outdoor title.
First, at the 1500-meter distance, the 25-year-old came in second place, behind Faith Kipyegon but ahead of Laura Muir, and therefore won the silver medal.
On day 5, she won the 5000-meter event in a close finish with a time of 14:46.29, beating off Beatrice Chebet (14:46.75) and Dawit Seyaum (14:47.3) of Ethiopia (14:47.36).
