Copenhagen Half Marathon: Who is Likina Amebaw, and where did this world-class athlete come from?

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Who is Likina Amebaw, and where did this world-class athlete come from?

The 27-year-old suddenly burst on the scene in 2024 to run off-the-hook performances that speak to otherworldly talent. This undiscovered gem of an athlete broke out in April 2024 to clock a 10km road performance of 29:56. In February 2025, she nudged her personal best to 29:40. Otherwise, she has never been able to break 30 and mostly ran 31 to 33-minute 10km performances.

On September 14, she won the Copenhagen half-marathon in a time of 1:04:44. In April, she raced to a new PB in the 5000m in 14:30.54. Two months prior in Monaco, she clocked a road 5km in 14:33. Hey, when you are hot, you are hot.

Extraordinaria carrera de Likina Amebaw con su 3º puesto en los 3.000 metros de la Diamond League. pic.twitter.com/y17UvBYQnm

— CA Facsa Playas de Castellón (@atletismoplayas) August 28, 2025

While an international 1500m runner wants to get under the 4:00 benchmark, 4:00.14 is close, but not good enough for the World Championships or Olympics. When you are a long-distance runner, 4:00.14, is hot. She ran that time in August this year at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

Amebaw, from Ethiopia, has an unrequited relationship in the 10,000m event. Expect her to drop her 2023 personal best of 32:33.59 to 29:30. Doing so would give her the ninth-fastest time in history. She is currently the ninth-fastest road athlete in history at 29:40. The world record is 28:54.14 by Beatrice Chebet of Kenya.

Amebaw improved her half-marathon best by over four minutes during the Copenhagen race, from 1:09:01. Copenhagen was an outstanding performance and may prove once again that miles make champions.

The world record in a women-only race is held by Peres Jepchirchir, an Olympic and World Champion in the marathon. Jepchirchir ran 1:05:16 in Gdynia, Poland, in 2020. The mixed-race world record is held by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey at 1:02:52 from Valencia 2021.

Amebaw finished Copenhagen as if she were just finishing up a jog in the park.

If Amebaw moved up to the marathon, she would not be able to get near the current world record of 2:09:56 by Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich set in Chicago 2024. As it turns out, Chepngetich was doping and is now suspended. There is no proof she was doping during the Chicago Marathon, but where there is smoke, there is fire. However, she can go after the second-fastest time in history of 2:11:53 set by Tigst Assefa, also of Ethiopia.

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