This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by their given name, Dawit, and not as Seyaum.
Dawit Seyaum made her first impact at national level in 2013, winning the 1500 metres Ethiopian junior title.[2] Her international debut on the IAAF Diamond League circuit followed shortly after, and she set a personal best of 4:14.95 minutes in the event at the Doha Diamond League meet.[3] She was selected to compete in the 1500 m at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics held in Donetsk, Ukraine and was runner-up to Tigist Gashaw – the first time Ethiopia took the top two spots in that event.[4] She reversed this placing at the 2013 African Junior Championships, taking the title with a best of 4:09.00 minutes several seconds ahead of Tigist.[5]
Dawit won her first indoor competition in Prague in February 2014, running 1500 m with a time of 4:09.08 minutes.[6] At the Rabat Meeting, she established herself among the world's top 1500 m runners with a win in 3:59.53 minutes – an Ethiopian junior record and meeting record which ranked her seventh in the global rankings that year.[7][8] She was near four minutes again at the New YorkDiamond League, where she finished as runner-up.[3] Dawit entered the World Junior Championships in Eugene as favourite and delivered on this by winning the gold medal, going unchallenged throughout the final lap.[9] Her first senior medal followed at the African Championships in Athletics, where she was the silver medallist behind the more experienced Hellen Obiri.[10] Dawit was chosen for the Africa team for the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup and finished with the bronze medal behind Sifan Hassan and Shannon Rowbury.[11]