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Quick Facts
Represents: Ethiopia
Age: 26 (Nov. 21, 1981)
Hometown: Axum, Tigre Province
Residence: Addis Ababa
Affiliation: Reebok
Events: 5000m (14:33.04 PB, 2003)
10,000m (30:07.15, 2003)
Half Marathon (1:08.09, 2005) |
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Career Highlights
- Gold Medalist, 2003 World Cross Country Championships 8K
- Gold Medalist, 1999 World Junior Cross Country Championships
- 3-time Silver Medalist, World Cross Country Championships 4K 2002, 2003, 2005
- 2-time Bronze Medalist, World Cross Country Championships 2004 and 2005
- Bronze Medalist, 1998 World Junior Cross Country Championships
- Silver Medalist, 2003 World Championships 10,000m
- 6th, 2005 World Championships 10,000m
- 4th, 2004 Olympic Games, 10,000m
- 7th, 2000 Olympics Games 5000m
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Background
 Many athletes view the World Cross Country Championships as the toughest competition to be found anywhere in the sport. If that’s true, then 25-year-old Werknesh Kidane must be one of the toughest athletes. Her eight medals at the event include gold in 2003 and 1999 (as a junior), and rank as the most World Cross Country medals won by any woman in history.
Werknesh’s star also shines on the track, with a silver medal at 10,000m in the 2003 World Championships, where her time makes her the fourth-fastest women ever at the distance. On May 29, 2005, she ran what was then the fastest women’s 10,000m race ever on U.S. soil when she won the Payton Jordan U.S. Open in 30:19.39. Her husband, Gebre Gebremariam, won the men’s 10,000m at the same event. They are now the parents of two sons, Nathaniel and Muse. |
