Genet Yalew Kassahun (born 31 December 1992) is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner who competes in track, cross country and road running events. Her half marathon best of 66:26 minutes is the Ethiopian record and ranks her in the top ten all-time for the sport.[1]
As an age-category athlete she won several individual medals, first taking 3000 metres bronze at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics, then the junior silver at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and finally another track bronze at the 2011 African Junior Athletics Championships. As part of the Ethiopian junior cross country team, she shared in a silver in 2010 before leading the team to gold in the 2011 edition.[2] She began competing on the IAAF Diamond League senior circuit in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.[3]
Genet was a medal-winning team member for Ethiopia at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and won a second team silver at the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. She shared in the team gold medal at the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, but was not a point-scoring member of the team,[2] having finished in tenth. On the track, she came short of a medal over 10,000 metres at the 2014 African Championships in Athletics, and was again off the podium at the 2015 African Games, taking fifth in the 5000 m.[3] She finished in that same place at the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, which helped an Ethiopian team of Netsanet Gudeta, Genet and Dehininet Demsew to the silver medals.[2]
| 2009 | World Youth Championships | Brixen, Italy | 3rd | 3000 m | 9:08.95 | |
| 2010 | World Cross Country Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 5th | Junior race | 19:03 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Junior team | 30 pts | |||
| World Junior Championships | Moncton, Canada | 6th | 3000 m | 9:01.75 | ||
| 2011 | World Cross Country Championships | Punta Umbría, Spain | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Junior race | 18:54 |
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | Junior team | 17 pts | |||
| African Junior Championships | Gaborone, Botswana | 3rd | 5000 m | 15:27.96 | ||
| 2012 | African Cross Country Championships | Cape Town, South Africa | 8th | Senior race | 27:49 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Senior team | 1:50:26 | |||
| 2013 | World Cross Country Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 15th | Senior race | 25:10 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Senior team | 48 pts | |||
| 2014 | World Half Marathon Championships | Copenhagen, Denmark | 10th | Half marathon | 1:09:15 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Team | 3:27:05 | |||
| African Championships | Marrakech, Morocco | 4th | 10,000 m | 32:52.46 | ||
| 2015 | World Cross Country Championships | Guiyang, China | 10th | Senior race | 27:00 | |
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | Senior team | 17 pts | |||
| African Games | Brazzaville, Republic of Congo | 5th | 5000 m | 15:43.77 | ||
| 2016 | World Half Marathon Championships | Cardiff, United Kingdom | 5th | Half marathon | 1:08:15 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Team | 3:26:29 |
2016
2015
2014
2011