Wami will make no mistakes this time

Gete Wami successfully defends in Berlin (Bongarts)

London, UK - World Marathon Majors champion Gete Wami says she will make no mistakes this year when she bids to win her first Flora London Marathon title on Sunday (13 April).

The 33-year-old Ethiopian had to be satisfied with second place in 2007 when she was beaten by the largely unknown Chinese woman Zhou Chunxiu in the last three miles of a gruelling battle under the hottest conditions ever experienced in the 26-year history of the race.

Not that it was the weather that proved to be Wami’s undoing – she was simply surprised by Zhou, a runner she admitted today she had never heard of before.

"I've now run a few marathons but there is always something new to learn from each one,” said Wami. “I didn't know who the Chinese woman was which was a big mistake.

“I had never heard of her. But I've done my homework on everybody for this year's race.”

All-time great

Wami’s glittering track and cross country career in the late 1990s and early 21st century ensures she’s already regarded as one of the greatest women distance runners of modern times

But it’s only in the two years that her performances over 42.195 kilometres have come close to matching the heights of her 19 individual and team medals at World Cross Country Championships and her five medals over 5000m and 10,000m at World Championships and Olympic Games.

Wami won her first marathon in Amsterdam six years ago in 2:22:19, the second fastest debut in history. But she didn’t compete again until 2004 when she made her first outing on London’s streets – an unsuccessful one as it turned out, for she dropped out suffering from hamstring problems.

But Wami is a quick learner. She had a second victory the following year, in San Diego, and in 2006 won her first Major, taking the tape in Berlin in what was then an Ethiopian record, 2:21:34.