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August 30, 2013

Defar beats Dibaba over 5000 meter


AFP

August 30, 2013



Editor’s Note – How refreshing to watch Meseret and Tirunesh finish 1-2 out of a pack of worldclass runners? Tirunesh spent the previous night at Rome airport on her way to Moscow, and to see her sprint just like that is fascinating. Of course, as the commentator put it, the 5,000m is Meseret Defar’s territory as the 10k is Tirunesh’s.


MOSCOW – Meseret Defar of Ethiopia produced a telling sprint finish to hold off a strong challenge from compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba and win the 5,000 meter run at the Diamond League meet in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday.

Defar, the world champion and double Olympic gold medallist, finished in 14min 32.83sec, with the beaten Dibaba trailing in in 14:34.82.

Later the same day Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt eased to yet another comfortable 100m victory.
Bolt charged home in 9.90secs, ahead of Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade and American Justin Gatlin trailing in behind.

Ashmeade finished in 9.94 and Gatlin in 9.96 in the 13th and penultimate Diamond League event of the season.

For once Bolt was relatively slow out of the blocks and seemed to take longer than usual to find his rhythm, but the man with six Olympic gold medals and eight world titles to his name recovered and overtook his two rivals with 15m to go.

Dibaba, 28, the triple Olympic champion who completed the 5,000m/10,000m double in Beijing five years ago, tried to break clear too early after her sister Genzebe had upped the pace at the four-kilometre mark.

Despite covering the final 1,000m in 2:40.68, Dibaba could not shake off Defar and lost the run-in on the home straight when Defar kicked for the line.

The victory gives Defar a 15-11 head-to-head advantage over her arch-rival in 5,000m contests.—AFP

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