Sultan Haydar (born May 23, 1985) is an Ethiopian-born Turkish long-distance runner. Her Ethiopian name is Chaltu Girma Meshesha.
She started off her career as a middle distance runner and was the bronze medalist in the 800 metres at the 2005 African Junior Athletics Championships.[1] Her final international appearance for Ethiopia came at the 2006 African Championships in Athletics, where she showed a talent for racewalking as she came sixth in the women's 20 km walk.[2] She transferred her eligibility to Turkey in 2008.
Haydar's first competition for Turkey was the 2008 European Cross Country Championships. She started the women's under-23 race quickly but yielded her early lead and dropped out at the halfway point.[3] She was the 1500 metres gold medalist at the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships, then won the under-23 race at the 2009 European Cross Country Championships later that year.[4] At the beginning of 2011 she made her debut over the half marathon and recorded a time of 1:10:02 hours for seventh place at the high calibre RAK Half Marathon.[5] She ran in the 1500 m at the 2010 European Athletics Championships, but failed to finish her heat. She turned to the 3000 metres at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships, where she set a personal best of 9:03.50 minutes to win her heat, but was slower in the final, coming in ninth place.[2] Outdoors, she competed for Turkey on home soil for the First League of the 2011 European Team Championships and won the 3000 m in a long-distance event sweep with Alemitu Bekele Degfa and Binnaz Uslu. Haydar also won the bronze in the 1500 m.
She was the leader for the much of the 2011 Istanbul Marathon, but slowed after 35 km and eventually finished seventh.[6]
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Turkey | |||||
2009 | European U23 Championships | Kaunas, Lithuania | 1st | 1500 m | 4:14.12 |
European Cross Country Championships | Dublin, Ireland | 1st | Under-23 | ||
2010 | European Championships | Barcelona, Spain | dnf (h) | 1500 m | 4:20.44 |
2011 | European Indoor Championships | Paris, France | 9th | 3000 m | 9:08.84 |