Mimi Belete

Mimi Belete Gebregeiorges (born 9 June 1988) is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner who competes internationally for Bahrain. She won the 5000 metres title at the 2010 Asian Games.

Mimi Belete
Mimi Belete (right) in 2015
Personal information
Born9 June 1988 (1988-06-09) (age 32)
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Bahrain
Asian Games
2010 Guangzhou5000 m
2010 Guangzhou1500 m

She moved to Belgium as a political refugee along with her younger sister, Almensh Belete, who is also a runner. It was in Belgium that she began competing: she ran at the 2007 Memorial van Damme in Brussels and was the 2009 winner of the Eurocross competition.[1] She chose to transfer allegiance to Bahrain in early 2009 and her first outing for her newly adopted country was at the Asian Cross Country Championships, where she took the silver medal behind fellow convert Maryam Yusuf Jamal.[2] She ran at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March and finished in 28th place. She also qualified for the 1500 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and reached the semi-finals of the event.[3][4] At the end of the year she set indoor bests at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games, taking fourth place in the 800 metres and taking the runner-up spot in the 1500 metres behind Liu Qing.[5]

She started her 2010 with a defence of her title at the Eurocross before going on to take 16th place at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz.[4] She improved her 3000 metres best with a fourth-place finish in 8:32.18 at the Herculis IAAF Diamond League meeting in July,[6] and a month later she ran a personal best of 4:00.25 for the 1500 m, taking second place behind Jamal at the Rieti Meeting.[7] She was selected to represent the Asia-Pacific team at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup and came in fourth place in the 1500 m.[8] Belete won two medals at the 2010 Asian Games in November. She made a team effort with Jamal in the 1500 m and ended up with the bronze medal as Truong Thanh Hang edged her near the finish.[9] Running in the 5000 m, she managed to fend off an Indian challenge in the form of Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut to secure the gold medal in a personal best of 15:15.59 minutes, completing her first major title win.[10]

On October 12, 2018, she won the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, with a course record time and personal best of 2:22:28.[11]

Competition record
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2009 Asian Cross Country Championships Manama, Bahrain 2nd Women's race
World Cross Country Championships Amman, Jordan 28th Women's race
World Championships Berlin, Germany 24th (sf) 1500 m 4:13.30
Asian Championships Guangzhou, China 6th 1500 m 4:35.30
Asian Indoor Games Hanoi, Vietnam 4th 800 m 2:06.67
2nd 1500 m 4:19.79
2010 Continental Cup Split, Croatia 4th 1500 m 4:22.27
Asian Games Guangzhou, China 3rd 1500 m 4:10.42
1st 5000 m 15:15.59
2011 World Championships Daegu, South Korea 7th 1500 m 4:07.60
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 18th (sf) 1500 m 4:05.91
2013 Asian Championships Pune, India 2nd 1500 m 4:14.04
World Championships Moscow, Russia 23rd (sf) 1500 m 4:14.22
Islamic Solidarity Games Palembang, Indonesia 4th 1500 m 4:21.10
2014 World Indoor Championships Sopot, Poland 16th (h) 1500 m 4:16.02
Asian Games Incheon, South Korea 2nd 1500 m 4:11.03
2nd 5000 m 15:00.87
2015 World Championships Beijing, China 11th 5000 m 15:17.01
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 19th (h) 5000 m 15:29.72

Other notable races

Key:   Course record

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon Toronto, Ontario, Canada 1st Women's Marathon 2:22:28[11]

References
  1. Hendrix, Ivo (2009-02-16). Kiprop and Belete are the Eurocross winners in Diekirch. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  2. Negash, Elshadai (2009-03-02). Jamal and Abdullah cruise to title defence - Asian Cross Country Championships. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  3. Hendrix, Ivo (2010-02-26). Matebo, Belete sisters the favourites in Diekirch Eurocross. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  4. Belete Mimi. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  5. Murali, Ram. Krishnan (2009-10-31). Li Ling's vault victory and Huong's 60m triumph highlight opening day of Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  6. Herculis 2010 - Women's 3000 m. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  7. Rieti 2010 - Women's 1500 m. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  8. Mulkeen, Jon (2010-09-05). EVENT Report - Women's 1500 Metres. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  9. Jamal captures 1500m title in Guangzhou - Asian Games, Day 3. IAAF (2010-11-24). Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  10. Bahrain takes two distance running golds - Asian Games, Day 6. IAAF (2010-11-27). Retrieved on 2010-11-28.
  11. "Mimi Belete breaks Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon record". canadarunningseries.com. 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
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