Meseret Defar of Ethiopia and compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba and Ejegayehu Dibaba (L-R) display their medals during the award ceremony for the women’s 5,000 metres at the world athletics championships in Helsinki August 13, 2005. Tirunesh Dibaba added the 10,000 metres title to her 5,000 gold on Saturday to become the first person to clinch the double at a world championships. Dibaba sprinted to victory in a championship record 14 minutes 38.59 seconds while Defar was second and elder sister Ejegayehu third. (REUTERS/Ruben Sprich)

NEWS in BRIEF ADDIS ABABA – Despite magnificent performances of the athletes, the politics of resentment marred the reception ceremony as government officials and their supporters tried to capitalize on what was harvested at the World Championships in Helsinki. Addis, which was brutalized by Meles Zenawi’ security forces following the premier’s crushing defeat at the polls last May, burst into protests when Arkebe Equbai, the mayor of Addis, tried to address the welcoming ceremony. He was forced to cut his speech short. Ethiop said when World double-gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba was joined by World 5000m silver medalist Meseret Defar, crowd cheers once again defeaned the stadium, getting the political message across that the athletes are the children of Ethiopia, not of an oppressive regime.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Thousands of Ethiopians braved pouring rain Tuesday to welcome home their track and field team, which finished third at the world championships in Helsinki.

Tirunesh Dibaba, who made history by becoming the first person to win both the 5,000-metre and 10,000 world titles, was presented with a garland of flowers amid loud cheers from the 30,000-strong crowd. It was the first time a woman had done the double at any global championships.

“It was all down to the training,” the 19-year-old Dibaba said.

Ethiopia’s Miruts Yifter was the last man to win both events in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics.

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia won the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon. He is the only person to have completed the triple.

Dibaba’s achievement overshadowed Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele, who both tried but failed to do the double.

“This was a great result for Ethiopia, but Tirunesh stole the show with her win,” Bekele said.

Earlier, Reuters reported from Helsinki that Tirunesh Dibaba added the 10,000 meters title to her 5,000 gold on Saturday to become the first person to clinch the double at a world championships.

Succeeding where her illustrious compatriots Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele had failed, Dibaba sprinted to victory in a championship record 14 minutes 38.59 seconds.

Dibaba’s team mate and Olympic 5,000 meters champion Meseret Defar was second and her elder sister Ejegayehu was third.

Another Ethiopian, world junior champion Meselech Melkamu, was fourth making the race only the second in history after the men’s 200 meters final in which the first four came from the same country. The Americans swept the 200 on Thursday.

“I’m extremely happy. I’m even more happy that we took first to fourth than I am about my own medal,” Dibaba told reporters.

“The competition was tough. Meseret and I were together until the last 100 meters or so.

“I wanted to win both races and I did. I’m planning to do that next time again. I can’t decide which I like better, the 5,000 or the 10,000.”

It was the first time a woman has done the double at a global championships. Ethiopia’s Miruts Yifter was the last man to win both events back in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics.

China’s Sun Yingjie and Kenyan Prisca Jepleting Ngetich had both tried to take the race on but the defending champion was happy to play a waiting game.

Dibaba made a break for victory at the bell.

The 19-year-old had a duel down the home straight with Defar, sprinting clear in the final few meters and throwing her arms aloft as she crossed the line.

“This sweep was not really a surprise” Defar said. “We have been training hard for these championships and we knew we had this chance.”

Dibaba has had an outstanding year, beginning with a double victory at the world cross country championships in March, running 8 km and 4 km on successive days.

She won the 10,000 meters title in Helsinki last Saturday, heading 2003 champion Bergen Adder and Ejegayehu in another sweep of the medals.

Tirunesh leads an Ethiopian clean sweep

HELSINKI, Finland — Tirunesh Dibaba led an Ethiopian clean sweep of the women’s 10,000 meters final on the first day of the world championships.

The 20-year-old Dibaba, the 2003 world 5,000m gold medallist who also won the long and short course world cross country titles this year, beat defending champion Berhane Adere into second place with a winning time of 30:24.02.

Adere clocked 30:25.41 and the bronze medal went to Dibaba’s older sister Ejegayehu Dibaba, who ran 30:26.00.

“I wanted to be first here and I felt quite confident that I could do it,” said Dibaba, the youngest ever world champion two years ago aged 18 years 90 days in Paris.

“For the last lap I ran really hard,” she added after her final 400 was clocked at just under 59 seconds. “I don’t have much experience of the 10,000 meters and I expected it to be a faster race than it was.”

Dibaba, who has set the world leading times in the 5000 and 10,000 this season, her first at the longer distance, is targeting a unique track double in Helsinki.

The feat has not been achieved since Ethiopian Miruts Yifter did it at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and has never occurred at a world championship.

A tactical final run in light drizzle at the Olympic stadium carried no fireworks until the final lap when the Ethiopians sprinted away at the bell.

Dibaba, who bears a striking resemblance to her cousin and former Olympic champion Derartu Tulu, hovered on Adere’s shoulder before going into overdrive.

She powered away off the bend and comfortably kept her compatriot at bay down the straight in a 58-second final lap.

Olympic champion Xing Huina of China, who caused a major surprise by winning in Athens, was fourth.

Briton Paula Radcliffe, looking to make up for her Olympic failures by again attempting the 10,000 and marathon double in Helsinki, set the pace until just over halfway before dropping back into the leading pack.

Radcliffe briefly took advantage of a slackening pace to hit the front again with four laps to go but soon faded and finished ninth.

The Englishwoman, still seeking her first major track title, cast a positive light on her run. Unfortunately, it was too windy so I couldn’t make it as hard as I wanted to,” said the world marathon record holder.

“I was using it as preparation for the marathon but wanted to run this race and enjoy it. I knew I was not going to be 100 percent sharp.”

Tirunesh Dibaba: Ready to make history at Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland – When Tirunesh Dibaba beat a world class field to become the youngest ever World Championship gold medalist over the 5000m in Paris 2003, her victory was called the surprise of the championships. “I competed in Paris only because I had the ‘A’ standard,” recalls Dibaba. “No one expected me to win. There was no pressure from anywhere. I just went for it.”

The likes of Berhane Adere, Gabriela Szabo, Marta Dominguez, and other top runners were preoccupied watching out for each other when suddenly the-then 18 year and 80 days aged runner flew past them like a flash. And before they all knew what had happened, Dibaba was celebrating another gold medal for Ethiopia in the most unexpected of circumstances. “All of them were looking at each other and no one was focusing on the finish line,” she says. “I had nothing to lose. I just went for it and was surprised that I had won.”

Her victory in Paris marked the beginning of a new era in distance running with Emperor Haile Gebrselassie and Queen Derartu Tulu giving way to Kenenisa Bekele and Dibaba, the crown Prince and Princess respectively. But unlike Bekele who has justified his thrown by winning Olympic gold and adding three more World Cross Country doubles, Dibaba has struggled until this year.

An inconsistent 2004

Her victory in Paris marked the beginning of a new era in distance running with Emperor Haile Gebrselassie and Queen Derartu Tulu giving way to Kenenisa Bekele and Dibaba, the crown Prince and Princess respectively. But unlike Bekele who has justified his thrown by winning Olympic gold and adding three more World Cross Country doubles, Dibaba has struggled until this year.

Although she defeated her cousin and childhood mentor Derartu Tulu in the 2004 Great North Cross in Newcastle, England, she lost out to Werknesh Kidane in the Ethiopian World Cross trials and again to Edith Masai in the short race in the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels, Belgium.

A World Junior 5000m record in the outdoor season went some way to consoling her after yet another defeat in the Ethiopian championships this time to Meselech Melkamu, but the most important outcome of the 2004 outdoor season was qualification for her very first Olympics in Athens. “I was so happy when I looked at the clock in Bergen,” she said of her 14:30.88 finishing time for second place behind former Ethiopian-born Elvan Abeylegesse’s World record.

But in Athens, bad tactics prevented Tirunesh Dibaba from picking up the gold medal she had seen her cousin Tulu win twice in her illustrious career. “I was a bit overweight and after following Elvan [Abeylegesse] at the early part of the race, I just could not follow the rest at the end,” she says. “I was not disappointed. I had learned my lesson.”

But this year, Tirunesh Dibaba has been running at the highest level. She started the year with an impressive cross country win in Edinburgh beating Australia’s World Cross Country long course champion Benita Johnson, and her (Tirunesh’s) sister Ejegayehou. Three weeks later, she smashed the World 5000m Indoor record in Boston, slicing nearly seven seconds off Adere’s previous mark.

And to cap her cross country season, she destroyed a host of fellow East African runners on her way to a short and long course double at the World Cross Country Championships in France. “Both races were not as hard as I had expected,” she said at the time after becoming the first woman after Ireland Sonia O’Sullivan to win World Cross double since the competition was introduced in 1998.

Two weeks after her epic victories in the French Loire region, Dibaba was back on the road in California, USA tying Paula Radcliffe’s World road best in the Carlsbad 5k**.

Outdoors, she set two world leading times on the track over the 5000m in New York and Rome, the latter in which she defeated Berhane Adere and Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar to signal the top form she is in, in the run-up to Helsinki. “The competition was tough in Rome, but I got my tactics correct,” she says.

“I am scared of no one”

Dibaba’s knowledge of tactics and her ability to strike when and how has certainly improved over the last two years. “When I won in Paris, everybody called me the “little girl”,” she says. “I am no longer that little girl. I have matured and certainly am afraid of no one during competition.”

Maturity for Dibaba has meant seeking new areas of distance running to challenge and this summer, she ran her first 10,000m to an outstanding effect in Sollentuna, Sweden, where she set a world leading time of 30:15.67.

“I had initially wanted to pace for my sister Ejegayehou since she wanted to obtain the A standard for Helsinki,” Dibaba explains. “But a week before the race, my manager (Mark Whetmore) suggested that I go for a sub-30 minute race. I had nothing to lose. I just agreed.”

And if it hadn’t been for the heavy rain that fell in Sollentuna, Dibaba might have just dipped under the elusive mark managed so far only by China’ Wang Junxia during her World record run of 29:31.68, twelve years ago. “The first thing I thought after the race was that I managed to run 10,000m and had finished it,” she giggled.

Childish innocence will not work anymore

Until this year, Dibaba attacked every race she entered with childish innocence. “I used to believe that since I had nothing to lose, I might as well do my best and not worry about anything else,” she says. “But this year, everything is different. I am starting to feel the pressure.”

The reason for her feeling “pressured” is the huge expectation of her Ethiopian fans. “People in Ethiopia believe that anything except gold is defeat,” she says. “Nowadays whenever I think of defeat, I feel that I need to win.”

Going for the double in Helsinki

At the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland (6 – 14 Aug), Dibaba confirms that she will run both the 5000m and 10,000m and expects both races to be the hardest she has run in her life so far.

“There is Meseret (Defar) over the 5000m and Berhane (Adere) in the 10,000m,” she speaks of her main rivals. “And there is Isabella (Ochichi) and many others who will run very well.”

“But I chose to run both races because I can win them both. I am ready to make history in Helsinki.”