Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay becomes the second-fastest athlete in women’s indoor mile history

Addis Ababa, February 9, 2023 (FBC) – Ethiopian athlete, Gudaf Tsegay, stormed to second on the world indoor mile all-time list, clocking 4:16.16 for a runaway victory at the ORLEN Copernicus Cup, this season’s third World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, in Torun, Poland, on Wednesday evening.

The 26-year-old, who set the world indoor 1500m record of 3:53.09 at the World Indoor Tour Gold event in Lievin in 2021, went into the race in Torun targeting the record mile mark of 4:13.31 set by Genzebe Dibaba in 2016. Gudaf was second in that race, running 4:24.98 as an 18-year-old, and now, seven years and six global medals later, she also has the second-fastest women’s indoor mile in history to her name.

The world 5000m champion and world indoor 1500m gold medalist showed her intent right from the start and followed the pacemaker through 400m in 1:01.1. Although the pace slowed, Gudaf was led to 800m in 2:07.21 and continued on to clock 3:11.26 at 1200m.

She eventually won by almost 13 seconds, with Poland’s Weronika Lizakowska second in 4:29.06 and Jamaica’s Adelle Tracey third in 4:30.17.

“I was hoping for the world record today, but athletics is like that,” said Gudaf Tsegay. “You can feel you are in great shape in training, but you don’t always do what you wanted in competition. I still hope the world record will be mine one day!”