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Dashing Dibaba smashes 5000m indoor WR

DIBABA-STOCKHOLMSTOCKHOLM, February 20- A year ago Genzebe Dibaba demolished the 3000m world Indoor record at the XL-galan in the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm and when she returned this Thursday evening (19) she delivered the best kind of deja-vu experience for almost 10,000 spectators at the penultimate IAAF Indoor Permit meeting of the winter.

Despite having pace making help only for the first two kilometres in the 5000m, Dibaba was still capable of running the third world indoor record * of her career when she clocked a stunning 14:18.86 for 25 laps of an indoor track

She took more than five seconds off the previous mark of 14:24:37 set by her compatriot Meseret Defar on the same track in 2009.

Just like 12 months ago, Dibaba was quickly on world record schedule and gradually distanced herself from the intermediate times in Defar’s world record race.

At 1000m, Dibaba was 1.2 seconds ahead; at 2000m, 3.0; at 3000m, 5.2; at 4000m, 6.0; and even though she couldn’t quite match Defar’s final lap 30.17 Dibaba still stopped the clock in a time that only two women – her sister and world record holder Tirunesh Dibaba and Defar – have beaten outdoors.

Her unofficial kilometre splits (to 0.1) were: 2:53.3, 2:51.5, 2:52.4, 2:54.6 and 2:47.1!

A very distant second more than a minute in arrears and two laps behind was Dibaba’s fellow Ethiopian, Birtukan Fente, in 15:22.56.

The 10th world record performance in the Arena was, of course, the main highlight of the evening but there were four more 2015 world-leading marks.

-1500m world leads-

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In the women’s 1500m, Sifan Hassan pushed really hard from halfway and was obviously aiming for the first sub-four time of this year.

In the end, the Dutch runner missed by less than 0.5, winning in 4:00.46, but it was still a most impressive display of running, illustrated by the fact that she left the rest of the field over five seconds behind, although UAE’s Bethlem Desalegn got a national record of 4:05.61 in second place.

Germany’s Homiyu Tesfaye entered the men’s 1500m as the 2015 world leader with 3:35.71 and he left the race still the  as the world leader but now with a national record of 3:34:13 to his name.

Tesfaye was pushed hard to the line by Kenya’s Bethwell Birgen, who clocked 3:34.62 for second place.

The men’s 800m produced an almost total rewriting of the top end of the 2015 world list with the top six in the race producing the six fastest times of this winter.

The Polish co-favourites, 2014 European champion Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski, surprisingly chose a more conservative opening strategy this evening and that provided their downfall.

Qatar’s Musaeb Balla stuck to the pacemaker right from the start and didn’t falter all the way to the line. Although Kszczot and Lewandowski finished very fast they didn’t quite manage to haul in Balla, who won in 1:45.48 with the Polish pair second and third with 1:45.77 and 1:45.78 respectively.

Another unexpected world-leading mark came in the women’s long jump where Canada’s Christobel Nettey opened with a 6.81m personal best and then reached a national record of 6.99m in the third round.

Nettey improved her overall best by no less than 21 centimetres after choosing to pass her last three attempts.

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Sweden’s 20-year-old 2010 Youth Olympic Games triple jump winner Khaddi Sagnia, who jumped 6.62m.

 

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