Before Dibaba, the great Kenenisa Bekele -- a three-time Olympic champion and double world record-holder in the 5, 000 and 10, 000m -- was the most famous product of the area.
Lu and a previous pi-memorizing record holder, Hideaki Tomoyori, who recited 40, 000 digits of pi, have said they linked words or images to groups of two, three or four numbers.