Ethiopia to send 11 athletes to Sopot IAAF World Indoor Championships

Ethiopia will send 11 athletes, including two reserves, to the IAAF World Indoor Championships next month in the Polish city of Sopot.

The outstanding gold medal favourite – not just for the Ethiopian team, but arguably of the whole championships – is Genzebe Dibaba.

The reigning world indoor 1500m champion has been in incredible form this year, setting world indoor records* in each of her three outings.

At the start of this month she smashed the world indoor 1500m record with 3:55.17 in Karlsruhe. Five days later, she took six seconds off the world indoor 3000m record with 8:16.60 in Stockholm. Little more than a week later, she set a world indoor best for two miles with a storming 9:00.48 run in Birmingham.

She will not defend her 1500m title in Sopot. Instead, she will focus on just the 3000m as she seeks to add another gold medal to her collection.

Ethiopia’s other reigning world indoor champion, Mohammed Aman, is also on the team. The world 800m champion indoors and outdoors is undefeated this year and leads the 2014 world indoor lists with his African record of 1:44.52.

Mekonnen Gebremedhin, 1500m bronze medallist in Istanbul two years ago, and world 3000m leader Hagos Gebrhiwet are among Ethiopia’s other medal contenders.

Ethiopian team for Sopot:

Men
800m: Mohammed Aman
1500m: Mekonnen Gebremedhin, Aman Wote
3000m: Yenew Alamirew, Dejen Gebremeskel, Hagos Gebrhiwet

Women
1500m: Axumawit Embaye, Gudaf Tsegay
3000m: Genzebe Dibaba, Almaz Ayana, Hiwot Ayalew

Source: IAAF.org