Dibaba Shatters World Indoor 5000m Record

14:27.42 in Boston

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Sunday 28 January 2007

(Photos: Victah Sailer)

Boston, USA – Ethiopia’s World 5000m and 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba lowered her own World indoor 5000m record** by five and a half seconds Saturday evening (27) at he Reebok Boston Indoor Games, running 14:27.42.

Running on the same track where she set the previous record of 14:32.93, just under two years ago, Dibaba left behind the last pacemakers at halfway and struck out alone, eventually lapping everyone else on the track.

Dibaba's performance was the highlight of a meet that saw five national records and eight other world indoor season leading performances, including a Shot Put upset, and near dominance of Australian athletes--with no indoor tracks in Australia, their record books were ripe for rewriting.

American Bridget Binning led the first kilometre in 2:55.23, and Serbian Marina Muncan took Dibaba, wearing a bib marked "Tiru," her older sister Ejegayehu ("Gigi"), the World 5000m bronze medallist, and Aheza Kiros (also of Ethiopia) through a slightly faster second kilometer, reaching 2,000m in 5:48.

Ejegayehu, who Tirunesh later explained was suffering from a cold, didn't move into the lead until a full lap after Muncan stepped off, and then lasted barely two laps before Tirunesh took over. The third kilometre was the slowest of the race, reached in 8:44.30, but the record was still in Dibaba's reach--if she didn't slow any more.

When 4000m came in 11:40.98, Dibaba was perilously close to falling off record pace, but her pace was steady. With six laps to go, she had lapped Kiros and was closing in on Ejegayehu. With two laps remaining and the record still possible, Dibaba poured on the speed. 

She covered the final 200m lap in 29.72 seconds, and the difference between that and her previous pace was the difference between the old record and the new one.

"Gigi was under the weather and wasn't able to keep up with me,"  Dibaba said of her sister. Still, she affirmed, "I'm very happy. I was prepared for this race, and I had the confidence to break the record. I didn't think I would break it by this much." Asked if she might pursue the outdoor record, currently held by her friendly rival Meseret Defar, Dibaba allowed, "If God is willing, I will try."