STOCKHOLM (AP)—Meseret Defar of Ethiopia missed the indoor world record by less than half a second as she won the 5,000 meters race at the GE Galan in Stockholm on Wednesday.
Defar clocked 14:24.85, just 0.48 seconds short of the record she set at the same venue last year.
Cuba’s Dayron Robles won the 60 meters hurdles in 7.49 seconds and countryman Cuban Alexis Copello won the men’s triple jump with a leap of 17.23 meters, 16 centimeters better than world-record holder Christian Olsson of Sweden.
Viktor Kuznetzov jumped a season’s best 8.09 meters to win the men’s long jump ahead of fellow Ukrainian Andreiy Makarchev.
Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic cleared 2.01 meters to win the women’s high jump, while Debbie Dunn outran fellow American Ebonie Floyd to win the women’s 400 meters in 52.35 seconds.
Mo Farah to face Ethiopian Legend Kenenisa Bekele
BBC Sports, February 11, 2010
European 3,000 metres indoor champion Mo Farah will race Ethiopia’s three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele in Birmingham on 20 February.
He set the British record last year in a time of seven minutes 34.47 seconds.
Farah, 26, will be aiming for a similar display in next Saturday’s Aviva Grand Prix at the National Indoor Arena.
“Bekele is always mentioned as the man to beat, and it’s great to pit myself against him with the hope being I can give him a good challenge,” he said.
Farah has not competed since coming third in the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country in January – he was in some distress when he crossed the finish line, paying the price for a fast start.
At the end of last year he collapsed with exhaustion following a duel with eventual winner Alemayehu Bezabeh in the men’s European Cross Country Championships in Ireland.
Farah was last month instructed to take dietary supplements after tests revealed lower than normal levels of iron and magnesium.
The Londoner has been doing high-altitude winter training in Kenya as he prepares for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.
“I’m looking forward to competing in Birmingham,” added Farah.
“It will be great to get on the track again alongside the best in the world and benchmark myself against them to gauge my potential performance in Doha.
“It’s brilliant to get the chance of running in front of a home crowd, there is always such a fantastic atmosphere, and the crowd really spur you on which is really important in long distance.
“I have a bit of a soft spot for the NIA since my performance last year. Breaking the British record was fantastic and I would love to get close to that again, if not beat it.”
