BOSTON, February 6- Double 2008 Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia has her sights set on reclaiming the indoor 5,000m world record at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday.Dibaba captured Beijing Olympic gold in the women’s 5,000 and 10,000 meters after taking third at the 2004 Athens Olympics and she has captured eight world titles in cross country and track from 2003 through 2008.
Dibaba missed the 2009 World Championships at Berlin due to a foot injury but is back on form after setting a 15-kilometer road race world mark in November of last year.
Dibaba owns the world outdoor 5,000m record, set in Oslo last year, and twice broke the world 5,000m indoor record at the Boston Indoor Games, doing so in the 2005 and 2007 editions of the meet.
Now she’ll try to regain the mark currently held by Meseret Defar at 14:24.37.
Dibaba was looking forward to her return to Boston.
"The crowd is unbelievable," said Dibaba, who expects a large contingent of Ethiopians living in the area to cheer her on. "I hope we have that atmosphere."
Bernard Lagat, coming off his record-setting eighth victory in Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile, headlines the 5,000m.
The American said he has been careful to keep up his speed work while training for the longer distance.
"I think I can have the same finishing kick at 5,000 meters, depending on how the race is run, if we have a smooth pace," Lagat said.
Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis of new Zealand returns to competition after a layoff because of hip surgery in the men’s 1,500m.
The meeting is the second stop on USA Track and Field’s Visa Championship series, which opened with the Millrose Games in New York.
