Junior career Dejen Gebremeskel grew up in the rural setting of
Gulo-Makeda woreda in northern Ethiopia and took up
running as a child, representing his school. He began competing around the
Tigray Region and after establishing himself in local races, he moved to
Addis Ababa to train with the national team. He won his first international medal at the
2007 African Junior Athletics Championships, taking the
silver medal over
5,000 metres behind
Mathew Kisorio. He had also competed abroad for the first time that year, running a personal best of 13:21.05 minutes to take sixth in the 5,000 m at the Flanders Cup meeting in
Brasschaat. He ran for Ethiopia at the
International Chiba Ekiden in 2008 and helped the team to victory, running the fastest time for his leg of the
road relay. Representing the Ethiopian Banks team, he won the junior title at the 2007 Addis Ababa
cross country race, beating
Hunegnaw Mesfin by a second. He was fourth in the junior category at the 2008 Ethiopian Cross Country Championships and was selected for the
2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he finished 18th (just outside the Ethiopian team which won the silver medal). Back on the track, he ran at the
Adidas Track Classic in May and set a new personal best of 13:08.96 minutes, second only to
Ali Abdosh. He was among the fastest entrants at the
2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and took the 5,000 m
bronze medal while his compatriot
Abreham Cherkos won the gold.
Start of senior career At the 2009 Ethiopian cross country trials in February, he came in third place. His main focus for the year was on track races and he had a successful transition into the senior ranks, winning at the Adidas Track Classic in May then improved his 5,000 m best to 13:03.13 min by taking third at the
Reebok Grand Prix in
New York City, where he was beaten only by Olympic medalists
Micah Kogo and
Bernard Lagat. He ran a
3,000 metres best of 7:58.69 m at the
Prefontaine Classic and came fourth at that year's
London Grand Prix. He was also the runner-up at the
Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix two weeks later and was selected to represent Ethiopia over 3,000 m at the
2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He ran the second fastest qualifying time (a personal best of 7:44.26 min), but did not perform as well in the event final, coming tenth.
World and Olympic medals and
Imane Merga in the 2011 World Championships final He continued to focus on the track in 2011 and at the
New Balance Indoor Grand Prix he defeated
Mo Farah in unusual circumstances – Dejen lost a shoe on the first lap of the race, but he persisted and won in a time of 7:35.37 minutes, one of the fastest 3,000 m runs that year. He debuted over the 10K
road distance later that month and was runner-up to
Sammy Kitwara at the
World's Best 10K with a time of 27:45. He won the Carlsbad 5K race in April, holding off
Eliud Kipchoge, and took his first win on the
Diamond League circuit with a victory at the Adidas Grand Prix in
New York City. A run of 12:55.89 at the
Golden Gala made him Ethiopia's second fastest 5000 m runner that season and he was selected for the national team for the
2011 World Championships in Athletics. He comfortably progressed through the qualifying round and the
5000 m final came down to a four-way battle among himself, Farah, Lagat and
Imane Merga. He was the last of the quartet to cross the line, but Imane Merga was disqualified after the medal ceremony as he had run outside of the track lanes. Dejen was promoted to the bronze medal, repeating his placing from the junior ranks three years previously. Dejen improved his 3000 m best to 7:34.14 minutes at the
XL Galan, but was a little slower at the
2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, placing fifth in the event. He won the Carlsbad 5000 for a second year running in March 2012. Two 5000 m wins on the
2012 IAAF Diamond League circuit, including a personal best of 12:46.81 minutes, making him the fifth fastest ever over the distance at the time, and earning him selection for the
2012 Summer Olympics. He ended the year with a fourth-place finish at the
Weltklasse Zurich, finishing second in the Diamond League rankings after
Isaiah Kiplangat Koech. A third straight win at the Carlsbad race opened his outdoor season in 2013. At the
2013 World Championships in Athletics, Gebremeskel finished 16th in the 10,000 metres in a time of 27.51.88. In 2013, Gebremeskel held the world leading time for
10,000 metres of 26:51.02, which he set at the Folksam Grand Prix in
Sollentuna,
Sweden. Capping off his 2014 indoor season, Gebremeskel scored a
bronze medal in the 3000 metres with a time of 7:55.39 at the
2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in
Moscow,
Russia. Gebremeskel went on to win his fourth straight Carlsbad 5000 race in 13:13, this time over American rival
Bernard Lagat. ==Major competition record==