Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Running and winning the double has always been part and parcel of Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar’s career, but few things compared to her scintillating 3000/5000m double victory at World Athletics Final in Monaco last September.

Coming off a season of highs and lows, Defar beat double World champion Tirunesh Dibaba and World 10000m silver medallist Berhane Adere in the 5000 on the first day and came back strongly on the second day to overhaul Gelete Burka to win the 3000m race.

Yet when she reflects on her 2005 campaign, the 22-year-old admits that she cannot put certain issues to the back of her mind.

"Everything was perfect except for one competition," she says. "And even in Helsinki, I could have won gold. I lost it due to my own fault."

In the Finnish capital, Defar met an unassailable Dibaba in the final of the women’s 5000m and remained in gold medal contention until the final 100m when her younger understudy got the upper hand when it mattered most "I did not know when to sprint," she says. "But at the end, it was not a bad result since my fellow countrywoman won the race."

 Nearly-perfect indoor season

On other fronts, however, Defar did live up to the reputation she cemented in 2004 when winning a surprise gold in the 5000m at the Olympic Games in Athens, but not without receiving a reality check in agony.

In late January, Defar had looked to be on course to breaking the World 3000m indoor record at the Boston Indoor Games when she was blocked by lapped runners in the final lap and missed the mark by less than one second, but nonetheless producing a sterling 8:30.05 performance, the second fastest of all-time.

"I thought that I had really done it," she says. "I finished the race and looked at my manager Mark [Wetmore], but there was no expression of happiness on his face. I was heartbroken. I had a bad feeling inside me."

A win in the Birmingham indoor Grand Prix three weeks later did little to heal the wounds from Boston, but she swept the field aside at the Fukuoka cross country International in Japan to end the winter season on a high.

"It was my first cross country race in two years," she says. "I really did not like cross country before then and just raced because my manager asked me to take part."

‘Embarrassed’ in Addis Ababa

But when Defar returned to Addis Ababa, she received one of the most convincing defeats in her career at the hands of upcoming World junior cross country champion Gelete Burka in the 3000m at the Addis Ababa Championships.

"I was carrying a bit of an injury going into the race," says Defar. "But I give her credit. She beat me convincingly [18 seconds] and I do not want to make any excuses."

Defar skipped the Ethiopian championships to prepare for the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha where she avenged Burka by defeating her over the same distance, clocking 8:39.75.

"Going into the competition, both Burka and Berhane Adere were better prepared and I just ran for conditioning," she says. "But it was a good tactical race for me. And I was happy to have beaten them both."

Inconsistencies outdoors

Defar’s winning streak continued in New York where she practically strolled to victory in the 3000m, lowering her personal best to 8:33.57. But her inconsistency of old caught up with her in Rome where she was beaten by both Tirunesh Dibaba and Berhane Adere, although she smashed her personal best for the 5000m on her way to finishing third, clocking 14:43.20

Although by far a very reasonable result, Defar lost to Dibaba again a month later in Helsinki in a competition she felt ‘bound to win.’ "I did everything I could to win," she says. "But I made tactical errors and it showed on the result." Defar clocked 14:39.54 for the silver, but reached the line nearly a full second behind Dibaba.

Defar planted the first seeds of revenge later than month in Brussels by running an African record 14:28.98 in the 5000 before completing her comeback with her notable double in Monaco.

Defar on Dibaba: "We are very good friends"

"Tirunesh is a very good friend," says Defar. "We train together for the national team and we like each other. It is only on the track that we are rivals."

In 2004, Defar was called ‘the speed master of long distance running’ when her outstanding burst of speed in the Olympics final left her well clear of Kenya’s Isabella Ochichi. In 2005 it was Dibaba’s turn to have a go at the clocks with a famous 58-second last lap in the women’s 10000m final in Helsinki.

While admitting to Dibaba’s prowess, Defar says that finishing speed is not something that only Dibaba can claim. "It has returned," she says, entering her 56.6 final lap in Monaco as evidence. "I can also sprint on the last lap and I have shown it."

Looking ahead, a little bit of everything in 2006

The Dibaba-Defar rivalry of 2005 will surely be an appetizer to continued confrontations in 2005, but Defar insists that the next twelve months are not about beating her compatriot.

"I am not afraid of competition," she says. "I am ready for anyone. I am planning many things next year."

Defar plans to start off her year with indoor competitions in Boston and Birmingham where she will again make an attempt on the World indoor 3000m record, the 8:29.15 by Adere which has stood since February 2002. She plans to cap her indoor season with a successful defence of her 3000m title at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow and focus her attentions on qualifying for the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan where she plans to run the 4Km short course race.

"I want to run in many competitions next year," she says. "My specialist distances are 5000m (outdoors) and 3000m (indoors), but I want to be adventurous and try everything."

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF