Centro de medios de NYRR

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ababel Yeshaneh broke the mixed gender half marathon world record at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the UAE. She followed that up in October of last year with a fifth-place finish at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Poland.

Her marathon personal-best of 2:20:51 came at the 2019 Chicago Marathon, where she finished second after taking sixth place at the Tokyo Marathon earlier that year.

Yeshaneh’s running career began on the track and in the half-marathon distance after she joined the Ethiopian Defense Forces sports club. She began competing internationally in 2011, at which point she ran her first international half marathon, the Vadodara Half Marathon in India, and took home the title. She made her marathon debut the following year, finishing sixth at the Turin Marathon in 2:34:36.

In 2013, she represented Ethiopia at the World Athletics Championships, coming ninth in the 10,000 meters, and the following year won a team silver medal at the African Cross Country Championships. She went on to place 14th in the 5000 meters at the Rio 2016 Olympics.