Former New Mexico Star From Eritrea Set To Compete In U.S. Trials

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Weini Kelati, who first came to the U.S. to compete in the World Junior Championships in Eugene in 2014, has become a U.S. citizen in the nick of time to compete for a spot in the women's 10,000 meters Saturday at Hayward Field. 

Kelati has been part of the distance running landscape in the country since 2015 when she won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship in San Diego, Calif. 

She then went on to a highly successful college career at the University of New Mexico under coach Joe Franklin, where she won the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor 10,000-meter title in 2019 and the NCAA Cross Country title later that fall. 

Kelati runs professionally for Under Armour's Dark Sky Distance Team, based in Arizona.

She and former New Mexico teammate Ednah Kurgat, originally from Kenya but now representing the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. are both scheduled to race in the 10,000 final.