Career
His first year of global competition came in 2008. He was eleventh in the junior race at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – a performance which helped Ethiopia to the team silver medals. He just missed out on a medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics, finishing fourth behind fellow Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan.
He ended the year with a third-place finish at the inaugural Bahir Dar Cross Country.
He competed as a senior at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, however, and his tenth-place performance brought the Ethiopian men second place in the team rankings. He celebrated his 21st birthday with a second high profile victory, this time at the Cinque Mulini.
In spite of these performances, he failed to match his placing of the previous year at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he ended the race in the nineteenth place as Ethiopia took the bronze behind Kenya and Eritrea. However, it was his compatriot who took the title at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships while Mesfin faded in the latter stages and came eighth, although he and Imane led the Ethiopian"s to second in the team rankings.
He began to compete on the European road circuit that year and was third at the Giro Media Blenio 10K in April, setting a time of 28:33 minutes.
He ran a 5000 m personal best of 13:38.92 minutes at the Athletissima meet in June and made his debut over the half marathon at the Udine Half Marathon, coming sixth in a time of 1:02:00 hours. At the Cross Zornotza in 2012 he took third place. His 2011/2012 cross country season began with a third-place finish at the Cross de Atapuerca.
