Aug 24, 2026 · 11 min · 7 segments
Yomif Kejelcha has spent more than a decade among the world’s best distance runners, from 3,000 and 5,000 metres on the track to the 10,000, half marathon and marathon. In this episode, Bjørn-Ivar…
Bjørn-Ivar SigbjørnsenHostBecause if you go back, Pielce was an incredible runner almost from the beginning.
He grew up in Ethiopia, and already as a teenager, he was winning world titles.
He won the world under-18 title over 3,000 meters when he was 15, then became world junior champion over 5,000 meters, and pretty quickly, he was competing with the very best senior runners as well.
So this isn't really a story about somebody struggling for years and then suddenly becoming good.
But there's something slightly strange when you look back through his championship results.
Because in 2015, he went to the World Championships in Beijing and finished fourth in the 5000 meters.
And then two years later, he went to London for another World Championships and finished fourth again.
And fourth is a funny position, isn't it? You're basically one of the best runners in the world, but you go home without the medal.
And apparently, that second fourth place really got him because Kielce later talked about how disappointed he was after London, and how he was actually thinking that he'd had enough of the track and wanted to move on to the roads.
He stayed on the track for quite a few more years, and some pretty amazing things happened there.
He became a two-time world indoor champion over 3,000 meters, he set an indoor mile record, he eventually got that outdoor world championship medal with silver over 10,000 meters in Doha, and his personal best became almost ridiculous.
So you certainly can't look at his track career and say it didn't work.
He was outside the medals at the Tokyo Olympics, eighth in the 5,000 at the World Championships in 2022, fifth in Budapest the following year, and then fifth again over 10,000 meters at the Paris Olympics.
And when I was looking back at all of that, I started wondering what that must actually feel like.
But if you're capable of running 12.38 for 5k, and you're one of the fastest runners who has ever lived, I suppose you don't necessarily experience fifth place in quite the same way.
Because if you go back, Pielce was an incredible runner almost from the beginning.
He grew up in Ethiopia, and already as a teenager, he was winning world titles.
He won the world under-18 title over 3,000 meters when he was 15, then became world junior champion over 5,000 meters, and pretty quickly, he was competing with the very best senior runners as well.
So this isn't really a story about somebody struggling for years and then suddenly becoming good.
But there's something slightly strange when you look back through his championship results.
Because in 2015, he went to the World Championships in Beijing and finished fourth in the 5000 meters.
And then two years later, he went to London for another World Championships and finished fourth again.
And fourth is a funny position, isn't it? You're basically one of the best runners in the world, but you go home without the medal.
And apparently, that second fourth place really got him because Kielce later talked about how disappointed he was after London, and how he was actually thinking that he'd had enough of the track and wanted to move on to the roads.
He stayed on the track for quite a few more years, and some pretty amazing things happened there.
He became a two-time world indoor champion over 3,000 meters, he set an indoor mile record, he eventually got that outdoor world championship medal with silver over 10,000 meters in Doha, and his personal best became almost ridiculous.
So you certainly can't look at his track career and say it didn't work.
He was outside the medals at the Tokyo Olympics, eighth in the 5,000 at the World Championships in 2022, fifth in Budapest the following year, and then fifth again over 10,000 meters at the Paris Olympics.
And when I was looking back at all of that, I started wondering what that must actually feel like.
But if you're capable of running 12.38 for 5k, and you're one of the fastest runners who has ever lived, I suppose you don't necessarily experience fifth place in quite the same way.
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