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Ethiopian runner achieves rare quadruple world championship standard

Selemon Barega completed the historic four-for-four qualification sweep, hitting all standards from the 1,500m to the marathon

Published July 21, 2025
Selemon Barega

Kevin Morris

At Saturday’s London Diamond League meeting, Ethiopia’s former Olympic champion Selemon Barega joined the exclusive club of athletes to hit four world championship standards. The 25-year-old dropped nearly five seconds off his 1,500m personal best, clocking 3:32.93 for ninth place–just under the 3:33.00 standard. With that result, Barega completed a rare sweep: he now holds qualifying marks in all four major distance events (1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon) for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.

Selemon Barega
World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024 in
Glasgow. Photo: Kevin Morris

Barega’s qualifying times

1,500m – 3:32.93 (standard: 3:33.00)

5,000m – 12:51.39 (standard: 13:01.00)

10,000m – 26:44.13 (standard: 27:00.00)

Marathon – 2:05:15 (standard: 2:06:30)

Barega’s 1,500m breakthrough comes just five months after his 2:05:15 marathon debut at February’s Zurich Seville Marathon in Seville, Spain. Add that to his stacked resumé–10,000m Olympic gold (Tokyo 2020), 5,000m world silver (Doha 2019) and 10,000m world bronze (Budapest 2023), 2018 Diamond League final champion at just 18 years old–and you’d assume he has a guaranteed in.

The world’s standard doesn’t guarantee a ticket

Given the depth of Ethiopian distance running, even being a world-class athlete and securing world-standard times doesn’t guarantee you a spot.

Each country can only enter three athletes per event at a World Championships (and an Olympic Games). Ethiopia’s distance depth runs so deep that even a four-time qualifier and former Olympic champion like Barega could be left off the team in multiple events.

Here’s where Barega stands on the Ethiopian Road to Tokyo leaderboard.

  • 1,500m: he’s the only Ethiopian with standard–he’s in.
  • 5,000m: he’s eighth–meaning five faster Ethiopians would have to decline their spots for him to be selected.
  • 10,000m: he’s third–just barely safe.
  • Marathon: he’s 20th. Seventeen other Ethiopians would’ve had to drop out for Barega to even be in consideration. (The deadline for the marathon has already passed and the team has been named.)

So despite Barega hitting standard for four distance events, he won’t be permitted to take on the quadruple at the World Championships. Either way, seven races over 10 days is a massive undertaking–one that few, if any, athletes would even consider attempting.

Sifan Hassan will no longer attempt Olympic quadruple in Paris

Instead, Barega will most likely line up for one or two races, depending on what the completion schedule allows, making a rare 1,500m-10,000m double his most likely path.