Mestawet Tufa (Amharic: መስታወት ቱፋ; born 14 September 1983 in Arsi) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. She was the winner of the women's 10,000 metres at the 2007 All-Africa Games[1] and the runner up in the senior women's race at the 2008 World Cross Country Championships.[2]
She competed at the Olympic Games, but did not finish her 10,000 metres race.
Tufa equaled the 15 Kilometres road running African record of 46:57 minutes in Nijmegen in November 2008. Elana Meyer had run the same time in 1991.[3]
She competed in her first mountain race at the Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race in Nigeria. She ran strongly, leading the race until the last 400 m. However, she failed to finish as she collapsed 50 m from the finish line due to severe dehydration and was treated by a medical team.[4] She returned to the race the following year and finished as runner-up, just one second behind the winner Mamitu Daska.[5]
She took third place at the Dam tot Damloop 10-mile run in September 2010, finishing with a time of 52:43.[6]
Mestawet set a course record of 1:10:03 to win the 2013 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon.[7]
| Representing | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Santiago, Chile | 5th | 3000 m | 9:16.73 | ||
| 2001 | World Youth Championships | Debrecen, Hungary | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | 3000 m | 9:11.60 |
| 2006 | Fukuoka, Japan | 7th | Long race (8 km) | 25:59 | ||
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | Team competition | 16 pts | |||
| Stuttgart, Germany | 8th | 5000 m | 16:09.29 | |||
| 2007 | Algiers, Algeria | bgcolor=gold | 1st | 10,000 m | 31:26.05 | |
| 2008 | World Cross Country Championships | Edinburgh, Scotland | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Senior Race (7.905 km) | 25:15 |
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | Team competition | 18 pts | |||
| 2009 | World Half Marathon Championships | Birmingham, England | 5th | Half marathon | 1:09:11 | |
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | Team competition | 3:26:14 | |||