PRAGUE – After her sensational 9:06.26 world best in Wedneday night’s two-mile contest at the inaugural edition of the aptly named Meeting of World Record Holders meet here, Meseret Defar was visibly pleased with her short, but sterling 2009 indoor season.
“My goal was to get three world records this season,” the 25-year-old Ethiopian beamed. “I only missed one, so that’s not bad.”
Eight days ago, Defar broke the world indoor mark in the 5000m with a 14:24.37 run in Stockholm. In Stuttgart 11 days earlier, she narrowly missed her own record in the 3000m, clocking a season-leading 8:26.99. On paper, an assault on her own 9:10.50 standard in the rarely run event was certainly within her capabilites. But it didn’t come easily.
Frustrated behind pacesetter Ksenia Agafonova for the first mile, Defar had plenty of ground to make up after reaching midway in just under 4:38. Urged on by her husband who was shouting out splits in Amharic from trackside, Defar managed to up the tempo dramatically to cover the final mile in under 4:29.
“She was a bit slow and I had to make up the time over the final laps,” Defar said of Agafonova, who went on to finish the race. “There was a time when I thought the record might not happen.”
Her negative split on Wednesday night was considerably faster than the 4:37/4:33 back-to-back miles she produced at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games a year ago, suggesting a marked improvement in her early season speed. But Defar said that the focus of her winter training hasn’t been on speed alone.
“This year I’ve worked very hard on all aspects of my race,” she said. “I had to make up this year for what I lost last year.” Before and after each of three appearances this winter, Defar has expressed disappointment with her 2008 season, when she failed to defend her Olympic 5000m title. Her rewriting of the all-time lists over the past 19 days, she said, was an important message to no one but herself.
“This is a strong message to me because 2008 was such a disappointment. This will boost my morale for this year.”
Defar said she will lighten her training load considerably over the next two weeks before focusing her full attention to defending her world 5000m title at the world championships in August.
Zakia Mrisho of Tanzania won the race for second over Lidia Chojecka, clocking 9:32.75 to the Pole’s 9:33.23. Both times were national bests.
STOCKHOLM, Feb 19 (AP) — Meseret Defar of Ethiopia broke the women’s 5,000-meter indoor world record by more than three seconds at the GE Gala on Wednesday night.
Defar was timed in 14 minutes, 24.37 seconds. Tirunesh Dibaba, also of Ethiopia, set the old mark of 14:27.42 in 2007.
With excellent pacemaking, Defar was two or three seconds under Dibaba’s split times throughout the race.
During the final laps, many of the fans at the sold out Ericsson Globe Arena stood up to cheer her on.
“I’d like to thank the Swedish crowd,” Defar said. “The fans were fantastic. It helped me a lot. What a wonderful race. The track was great. I’d love to come back.”
With the win, Defar extended her unbeaten indoor streak to 18 races since March 2003.
Defar took the lead with about 3,000 meters left in the 34-lap race and lapped most of the seven other finishers twice.
The 25-year-old Defar has won Olympic and world championship titles in the 5,000, and she’s as good in the 3,000 with three consecutive world indoor golds and a world record in that distance.
Maria Konovalova of Russia was a distant runner-up in 15:42.37.
It was the seventh record set at the Globe since 1989.
In the men’s 800, 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy outkicked Ismail Ahmed Ismail of Sudan for his fifth victory in seven races at the Globe.
Borzakovskiy, who has never finished worse than second here, clocked a relatively slow 1:48.13. Ismail, the Olympic silver medalist last year, was seven-hundredths of a second behind.
Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei of Kenya finished fifth in 1:50.11.
Jesse Williams won the high jump at 2.30 meters — the fifth straight meet the American cleared at least 2.30. Russians Aleksandr Shustov and Yaroslav Rybakov cleared the same height and were second and third respectively.
Olympic champion Steve Hooker won the pole vault at 5.86 meters to extend his winning streak to five meets. He failed three times at 6 meters. This month, the Australian cleared 6.06 in Boston for the second-best men’s jump behind Sergey Bubka of Ukraine (6.15).
Angela Williams and Stephanie Durst led the United States to a 1-2 finish in the women’s 60 meters. Williams clocked 7.32 seconds, edging Durst by 0.07 seconds. Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, the 2004 Athens Olympic champion who quit the heptathlon after winning her third straight world championship in 2007, placed sixth and last in 7.68.
Dexter Faulk, another American, took the men’s 60 hurdles in 7.56 and Paul Kipsiele Koech of Kenya won the men’s 3,000 in 7:32.80, the fastest time of the year indoors.
VALENCIA, Spain – Abraham Cherkos of Ethiopia ran the season’s fastest time in the 3,000 meters to edge Augustine Choge of Kenya at the Valencia Indoors meet on Saturday.
Cherkos held off Choge over the final lap to shave nearly one second off of Bernard Legat’s previous time, finishing in 7 minutes, 34.05 seconds.
Choge also bested Legat’s previous best by finishing in 7:34.47, with fellow Kenyan Shedrack Korir finishing third.
Spain’s Nuria Fernandez set a season’s best time to take the women’s 1,500, crossing in 4:01.77 to finish ahead of fellow Spaniard Natalia Rodriguez and Meskerem Assefa of Ethiopia.
Haron Keitany of Kenya, already with the men’s fastest 1,500 this season, edged Mekonnen Gebremedhin of Ethiopia.
Poland’s Dariusz Kuc took the men’s 60 over Rae Edwards of the United States on a photo-finish after both crossed the line in 6.59.
In other men’s events, Spain’s Santiago Ezquerro won the 400, Abraham Chepkirwok of Uguanda took the 800 and Jackson Quinonez of Spain won the 60-meter hurdles.
Jesse Williams of the United States won the high jump, Poland’s Marcin Starzak took the long jump and American Christian Cantwell won the shot put.
Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya pulled away for a victory in the women’s 3,000, finishing over 11 seconds ahead of Sara Moreira of Portugal.
In the women’s other track events, Laia Forcadell of Spain won the 400, countrywoman Elian Periz took the 800 and Danielle Carruthers of the United States triumphed in the 60 hurdles. Anna Battke of Germany won the pole vault.
