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Report06 Aug 2005


Event Report - Women 10,000m Final

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Dibaba keeps it in the family

Tirunesh Dibaba will not celebrate her 20th birthday until later this year, yet tonight she claimed her fifth, and possibly finest, senior world title, sprinting around the final lap of the women's 10,000 metres at the IAAF World Championships in just 58.53sec to snatch the gold medal from the defending champion, her Ethiopian team mate Berhane Adere.

It was a breathtaking display of finishing speed, reminiscent for those old enough - and therefore much older than Dibaba - to remember the last-lap sprint of the Finnish hero, Juha Vaatainen, to take the European 10,000m title on this track.

That was a performance which transformed the perceptions of the men's event then, and it may be that Dibaba's run has the same impact on the women's event.

Of course, as the cousin of the two-time Olympic 10,000m champion, Derartu Tulu, Dibaba's abilities are less surprising, but her victory today also created another small piece of athletics history. For behind her 30min 24.02sec winning time, and Adere's 30:25.41, there came her elder sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba for bronze, in 30:26.00 - the first time siblings have won medals in the same individual event at a senior World Championships.

If anything, this performance was as impressive as her dominating double success at the World Cross-Country in St Etienne earlier this year.

The clear blue Nordic skies of the morning had long since clouded over by the time of the 10,000m start, and instead threatening grey cloud skudded over the Olympic Stadium thanks to a bone-chilling wind blowing down from the Arctic.

As the rain started to fall in the half-hour before the event, the conditions were far removed from those sweltering nights in Seville or Athens, and much more conducive to fast times.

The story of race unfolded in somewhat familiar style, with Britain's Paula Radcliffe quickly moving to the front and setting a strong pace over the opening five kilometres, covered in 15:16.29.

The leading group had been reduced to just 11 from the 26 starters within eight laps, but the pack clearly did not feel the pace set by the marathon world record-holder was challenging enough, and Kenya's Edith Masai was among those who took on the responsibility in the second half of the race.

With seven laps to go, the Ethiopians filled the first for places, and the domination was set, although the Chinese pair of Yingjie Sun and Huina Xing looked to disrupt the Africans' rhythm and control going into the final kilometre.

But no one, not even Adere, could match Dibaba's fluid, elastic stride around the final circuit. The woman who became the youngest ever senior world track champion when she took the 5,000m title in Paris two years ago could be dominating women's distance running for some time to come.

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