 |
||
|
Dibaba’s double distance delight Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba adds 5000m gold to 10,000 title and leads her nation to sweep of first four places
ONLY one African athlete won a medal at the first IAAF World Championships in Helsinki in 1983. How times change. Twenty-two years ago in this Finnish city, Kebede Balcha finished second to Rob de Castella in the marathon. Yet last weekend a quartet of women from Balcha’s homeland, Ethiopia, filled the first four places in the 10,000m final. Led by Tirunesh Dibaba, it completed a remarkable championship for Ethiopia. The previous weekend the 20-year-old had led her team-mates to a sweep of the medals in the 10,000m. In between, Kenenisa Bekele had claimed the 10,000m men’s title. Now, Dibaba sealed a golden double by winning the 5000m. Her closest rivals? Meseret Defar, Ejegayehu Dibaba and Meselech Melkamu – all Ethiopian, all training partners and one of them, Ejegayehu, is Tirunesh’s sister. Dibaba ran the final lap in 58.2 compared to the last 400m in the 10,000m of 58.5, and her last 200m in 28 seconds dead. The closest non- Ethiopian challenger, China’s Xing Huina, ran the last lap in 63 seconds.
Full story in issue 59-33, 17th August 2005.
|
|
|
