Meseret Defar, who smashed the World indoor 3000m record** in Stuttgart, Germany on Saturday, one week after a heroic effort in Boston despite illness, and two years after her first attempt on the mark, is in shape for a record year. She has set her sights on bettering her other marks, on the track and on the road.

“I’m very happy,” said the Ethiopian Olympic 5000m champion the morning after running 8:23.72 to slash four seconds off Russian Liliya Shobukhova’s mark of 8:27.86. “I tried it four times and I failed. This time, I broke it by a wide margin of many seconds, and that was after being sick.”

Click here for the original meeting report from Stuttgart

Derailed by illness in Boston

Ten days earlier, Defar had arrived in the U.S. ready to tackle the record at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games but had come down with a severe cold.

“I was feeling terrible,” she said, but she nevertheless managed to run 8:30.31, the fifth fastest time ever, and lay sprawled on the ground trackside long after the race. “I have prepared very well,” she said the next day, speaking about the record she still felt she could attain, given the time she had run while sick.

“I will try my best for the second time in Stuttgart.” Defar had first attempted the mark in 2005 and narrowly missed the then-record of 8:29.15, running 8:30.05 in Boston. She had made additional attempts (two formal and one informal) in Birmingham, Boston and Stuttgart over the last two years, before the mark itself was slashed by Shobukhova at the February 2006 Russian championships, but Defar’s 8:30.05 on her first try remained her best time for the event, until last Saturday in Stuttgart.

Sparks fly at the Sparkassen-Cup

“I entered the race determined to break the record,” she said on Sunday, the day after she followed pacesetter Olga Komyagina of Russia and held off her own compatriot Meselech Melkamu to finally smash the elusive mark at Stuttgart’s Sparkassen-Cup meet.

“I ran a really good time for the last 1,000,” she said. “The pacemaker did a good job. She should have gone to 2,000m, but when she started to slow down, I passed her. I was watching the clock. When I passed 2000m, I knew that I had it.”

The record came despite of the fact that Defar was still feeling the after-effects of her illness.

“There’s some lingering fatigue,”she said. There was also the unexpected challenge posed by Melkamu, who pushed her all the way to the line and finished in 8:23.74. “I was watching her on the screen,” said Defar, who hadn’t realized the formidable shape of her countrywoman.

“Sometimes we train together. But I did a lot of preparation for this indoor season by myself.”

“I was monitoring her and controlling myself, otherwise, my time could have been better.”

All of which raises the possibility of Defar trying to lower the mark still further in more ideal conditions. “Yes, if God wills, next year, I will.”

Pacing and lapped runner obstacles removed

In Boston last week, she had repeatedly looked to her designated pacesetters to take the lead at the start of her race, and later urged them on. “The pacemakers weren’t able to manage,” she said later.

Komyagina, who has herself run 8:35.67 while placing third at the 2006 Russian nationals, was the sole rabbit in Stuttgart. “Her pacing suits me,” said Defar before the race. “The fast times I’ve run in Stockholm were run with her pacing.” Defar ran 8:24.66 for 3,000m outdoors in Stockholm last July.

On Defar’s first indoor 3000m record assault in Boston, she had been forced to circumvent lapped runners on the last lap and missed the mark by under one second. In 2007, nobody blocked her path in either Boston or Stuttgart.

Her manager and the Boston meet director Mark Wetmore said he hadn’t asked athletes before the Boston race to make way. “I have in the past,” he said. “I didn’t do it this year because it sometimes makes people nervous.” Instead, he motioned from the infield to those about to be overtaken. “As long as you give them enough notice, they’re very gracious about it,” he said. “No athlete wants to be the reason someone of that caliber doesn’t make a record.”

Runners in Stuttgart were also accommodating, confirmed Defar, “They were making way for me and moving out into the second lane.”

But all things considered, Defar was struck by the magnitude of her success. “After trying it four times, I was surprised to succeed in such a fast time now, since I’d been sick. I was so happy. I realized my own strength.”

Attacking her own records outdoors

Defar will put that strength to the test outdoors this year even before the Osaka World Championships where she hopes to better her 2005 silver in the 5000m.

“I believe Carlsbad will be my next race,” she said of the Californian venue where she ran a 14:46 unofficial World best for 5K on the road last April.

“God willing, I hope to improve my time there.” That 2006 mark was followed by her first track World record, the 14:24.53 she clocked in New York in June over 5000m and hopes to better in 2007. “When I begin outdoor track training, if it’s going well, I will try again.”

Defar v Dibaba over 5000m in Rome?

After challenging her fiercely over the 2006 Golden League series, World Athletic Final and African Championships Defar will face her defending World champion compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba at the Osaka 5000m, but it’s not yet certain where and when they might meet before that, as each athlete prepares for the Worlds.

“I would guess it would be in Rome - IAAF Golden League - and maybe one time before that,” said Wetmore, who manages both women and said it’s almost certain they will meet in the Golden Gala 5000m in Rome in July.

Defar’s outdoor marks may come under threat, though, given Dibaba’s and now Melkamu’s form. Meanwhile, come next year, with the elusive indoor 3000m record finally in her possession, Defar doesn’t preclude the possibility of tackling the 14:27.42 indoor 5000m mark that was smashed in spectacular fashion by Dibaba in Boston.

“I’d like to try to run fast times in all of the events that I run,” said Defar. “If it were possible, I would even have liked to do so in the 1500.”

Sabrina Yohannes for the IAAF

**Subject to ratification