In the last few days long distance runners set a couple of highlights in the new season. Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba broke the indoor world record at 5,000 meters with 14:32.93 minutes at the Boston Indoor Meeting. She improved Berhane Adere’s former world record from last year by six seconds.
Dibaba’s, who is just 19-years-old, best indoor time sounds promising regarding the upcoming outdoor season. Her sister Ejagayou, who is three years older, set the pace in the first half of the race.
The 5,000m world record of 14:24.68 minutes, which was set last year from Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, could be within reach for Tirunesh Dibaba who had reached third place in the Olympic 5,000m final. 14 years ago, Uta Pippig broke the 5,000m world record: The runner from Berlin clocked 15:13.72 minutes in 1991 in Stuttgart.
Berhane Adere almost would have lost another world record in Boston. 5,000m Olympic Champion Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) won the 3,000m run in 8:30.05 minutes—Adere had run 8:29.15 in Stuttgart three years ago.
Meanwhile 10,000m Olympic Champion Kenenisa Bekele ran his first race after the tragic death of his fiancée. At the age of only 17, Alem Techale had collapsed and died during a training run in the beginning of January. Bekele now ran the 3,000m in Boston in 7:41.42 minutes and became second behind Irishman Alistair Cragg, who set a season’s best of 7:39.89.
The other great Ethiopian runner, Haile Gebrselassie, came back as well. After an Achilles tendon operation he won a half marathon in Almeria (Spain) in 61:46 minutes. It was a new course record. And now Gebrselassie plans to run the high-class London Marathon on April 17th. Three years ago he had run his first serious marathon in London finishing third in a first-class time of 2:06:35 hours. Meanwhile it was announced that Gebrselassie has signed a three year contract with the London marathon. His aim is to break the world record of Paul Tergat (Kenya), who had triumphed at the real,- Berlin-Marathon 2003 in 2:04:55.
