The story
Hailu Mekonnen came up training alongside Haile Gebrselassie himself, and it showed. He earned junior bronze, with team gold, at the 1998 World Cross Country Championships, then a medaling double at the 1999 edition in Belfast: winning the junior race and taking bronze in the senior short course.
Later in 1999 he struck gold on the track, winning the 1,500m at the All-Africa Games in Johannesburg ahead of Kenya's David Lelei. He represented Ethiopia at the 1999 and 2001 World Championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, added short-course bronze at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships, silver in the 5,000m at the 2003 All-Africa Games, and gold at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games. At the 2003 International Chiba Ekiden he ran the fastest second stage as Ethiopia won in the fastest Ekiden ever run.
He then conquered the roads: winner of the Montferland 15km, then a marathon breakthrough — 8th at the 2010 Paris Marathon despite falling mid-race, 5th at Amsterdam in 2:07:37, and then the crown: champion of the 2011 Tokyo Marathon (2:07:35), breaking away at 33km in what was then the third-fastest marathon in the world that year. He added the Hengshui Lake International Marathon title (2012) and the Tiberias Marathon title (2015).