Meselech Melkamu after her commanding win in Llodio (© Jose Montes)
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaEthiopians Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba may be the hottest properties in female distance running at the moment, but after an encouraging start to the 2007 season, their compatriot and World Cross Country bronze medallist Meselech Melkamu believes she is matching the ‘Dueling D’s’ stride-for-stride.
Following a successful start to the cross country season, Melkamu made her indoor debut in Stuttgart in February where she ran the second-fastest time (8:23.74) ever in the 3000m when finishing two-hundredths of a second behind Defar (8:23.72), who smashed Liliya Shobukhova’s (8:27.86) World record by more than four seconds.
And after winning the trials in Addis Ababa, the 22-year old gave Dibaba a run for her money when winning bronze behind Kenyan-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat and the defending champion in the 35th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombassa, Kenya.
“I was injured for much of the 2006 track season and was not able to compete as well as I would have liked,” she says. “This year, however, I am training well and the results are very visible.”
Mombassa experience
Many members of the Ethiopian team failed to survive the atrocious conditions in Mombassa as the team succumbed to a lonely team gold and two individual medals. But Melkamu survived the conditions better than most by repeating her bronze medal performance from the previous year in Fukuoka.
“I probably survived the conditions better than most probably because I have run in warm and humid places before like Doha and in Italy,” she says. “We had trained well with the Federation and with our club [EEPCO] coaches who took us (Melkamu, Ahaza Kiros, and Wude Ayalew) out of Addis Ababa for some warm-weather training. I had prepared well, but it was not enough for gold.”
Melkamu’s performance is a fresh breath of hope for Ethiopian prospects as their recovery from a disappointing championship in Mombassa continues. But she admits that she is more buoyed by her indoor season this year than her Mombassa experience.
Phenomenal indoor debut
“I had planned to run cross country for the first three months of the year,” she says. “But when the invitation came for me to compete in Stuttgart, I just wanted to give it a try. I knew Meseret [Defar] was going there for the world record. Because of the fast pace she would set, I knew that I can run a very fast time.”
Despite her confidence going into the race, Melkamu never anticipated the outcome.
She even thought that she had won the race when she crossed the line ahead of Defar. “I debated the decision,” she says. “I only admitted defeat after the organizers sent me an email with the photo-finish documents.”
That was a rare display of guts and determination from a runner who many regard as calm, collected, and sound-mannered. However, Melkamu admits that the key to her strong performances this season is a new-found desire to win.
“I am getting that desire in me to win everything,” she says. “I want to win no matter what happens.”
Slowed by typhoid, food-poisoning in 2006
Melkamu was held in high regard from the time she emerged onto the international scene in 2004 when winning in the junior race at the 32nd IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Brussels, Belgium and 5000m gold at the 10th IAAF World Junior Championships in Grosseto, Italy.
“My growth to a senior did not go as planned,” she says of her mediocre 2005 and 2006 season. “Last year, I did not train properly because I was ill with food poisoning and typhoid. It comes from a lot of travelling and not taking care of what I eat. I have started to watch what I eat more carefully this year.”
Daughter of a marathoner
Melkamu was never a person who spoke her mind when growing up in Debremarkos in the northern part of Ethiopia. Her father, Melkamu Haileyesus, had been a modest runner who had taken part in some international marathon races in Israel in his heyday, but at first he discouraged his daughter from pursuing a career in running.
“I did not even want to listen,” says Melkamu, who started running in her late teens to stay fit and healthy.
Her birth region did not have any other famous runners to whom she can relate to in her early days, although she always had one idol. “Haile Gebrselassie has always been my role model,” she says. “I am motivated by his achievements.”
Because of Melkamu’s success, young runners in her region now have a star to emulate. “Many kids have started running in Debremarkos after watching me,” she says. “At home, my brothers have started running in school and my elder sister sometimes trains with me.”
Self-confessed Jolie fan and a foster parent
In addition to training and competition, Melkamu likes chatting with friends and watching movies. She is a big fan of Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie. “I admire her a lot,” she says. “I never miss an Angelina Jolie movie.”
Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt visited Ethiopia in 2006 to adopt an Ethiopian child through a UNICEF project. Melkamu has also taken the charitable-giving step. “I have adopted a small boy who lost his parents to HIV/AIDS,” she says. “He lives with my brother in Debremarkos and I pay for his school and living.”
Limited racing on the road to Osaka
After her successful 2007 season, Melkamu will now turn her attention to the track. “The exhaustion from Mombassa is still affecting me,” she says. “I have had to cancel a couple of races including a world record attempt in Carlsbad. I want to make a slow return to competition.”
Melkamu’s first race of the track season could well be the opening leg of the IAAF Golden League series in Oslo, Norway where she hopes to make a big statement.
“I want to run a fast time in order not to worry about qualification for Osaka,” she says. “If I am successful, I do not want to run for the rest of the season because I want to concentrate all my training for the World Championships. If not, I hope to compete in Paris and Rome.”
“I feel good at the moment. With the help of God, I want to travel to Osaka to win gold.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
