Melat Yisak Kejeta

Melat Yisak Kejeta (born 27 September 1992) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. She won the silver medal for the women's race at the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships and represented Germany at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kejeta is the European record holder for the women's only half marathon.

Personal life Melat Yisak Kejeta was born in Ethiopia. She is a member of the Oromo ethnic group, like the Dibaba sisters who are among her role models. She lives in Baunatal near Kassel with her husband whom she met in a German regional train.

Career She was a talented U20 runner and became good again after having gained a foothold in Germany. In 2018, she improved her half marathon personal best to 1:08:41, which would have ranked her third on the 2018 European top list had she already been a German citizen.

In 2019, she made her marathon debut at the 2019 Berlin Marathon held in Berlin, Germany. She had prepared for that in Kenya under the guidance of Eliud Kipchoge's coach Patrick Sang who assessed her marathon potential to be somewhere in the range from 2:19 to 2:22. She finished in sixth place in the women's category with a time of 2:23:57, which was the fastest marathon debut by a German woman (previously Irina Mikitenko at the 2007 Berlin Marathon) and put her third on the German all-time top list behind Mikitenko's 2:19:19 and Uta Pippig's 2:21:45.

Since 6 March 2020, she is eligible to represent Germany in international championships. The winner was Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya with 1:05:16, a new world record for a women's only run. Kejeta won silver in 1:05:18. This time was an improvement on her personal best by 3:23, on the German record by 2:40, and on the European record for women-only races by 1:07. Kejeta's split time for the 10 km was 30:47, faster than the German national record for the 10 k. Her performance also helped Germany to win an unexpected team bronze. These were the first German medals ever in a half marathon world championship. She participated in the 2024 Olympic marathon in Paris but did not finish.

Achievements International competitions

Personal bests Road 5 kilometres – 15:51 (Trier 2017) 10 kilometres – 31:50 (Oelde 2019) Half marathon – 1:05:18 (Gdynia 2020) European record Marathon – 2:23:57 (Berlin 2019)

National titles German Athletics Championships 10 kilometres: 2016