Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

It’s official: one of the fiercest rivalries in the sport will take centre stage when the guns sound the start of the women’s 5000m on Friday evening, August 22. Tirunesh Dibaba, the recently minted Olympic 10,000m champion will square off against Meseret Defar, the reigning 5000m champion.

On Tuesday, both Tirunesh and Meseret easily won their semi-final rounds and are set to face off Friday. Watch videos of round one here: Tirunesh, Meseret

Since the 2002 World Junior Championships, when Defar took the title over Dibaba, the Ethiopian duo have met 22 times in the 5000m, with Defar holding a narrow 12-10 lead while building up her resume as arguably the world’s finest 5000m runner. But in June, Dibaba, who has dominated the 10,000m in recent years, took the World record from Defar in Oslo clocking 14:11.15. Defar tried to reclaim it in Stockholm a month later, but came up just a few metres short, clocking 14:12.88. The two are that close.

For whatever reasons, they haven’t met since the World Athletics Final nearly two years ago – won by Defar – but their paths will finally, and dramatically cross here as Dibaba aims to win her second medal of the Games while Defar hopes to hold on to a title she considers hers.

Each won their respective heats tonight with relative ease, Dibaba the slower first in 15:09.89 and Defar the faster second in 14:56.32. Their victories were remarkably similar as both were content to sit back in the pack and let others do the leading. Dibaba moved to the front just beyond the bell and held on, while Defar chose to wait until about 200 metres remained.

If either can be considered to have a slight edge, it would be Defar, who raced for the first time in these Games. The biggest question mark hanging over Dibaba will be how she’ll recover from her phenomenal victory in the 10,000m, where her stunning 29:54.66 performance was the second fastest in history.

Neither of the first round heats produced much drama for the remaining five automatic spots behind the Ethiopian pair, with the slots already more or less determined as the fields approached their respective bell laps.

Just a little more than a second separated spots two through five in the first race, with Kenyan Sylvia Kibet (15:10.37), Alemitu Bekele (15:10.92) of Turkey, Ethiopia’s African Champion Meselech Melkamu (15:11.21) and Gulnara Galkina-Samitova (15:11.46) of Russia moving on easily. Behind them, American Jenn Rhines, who ran with the leaders through much of the race, nabbed the sixth automatic spot, clocking 15:15.12.

The significantly quicker pace over the final kilometre in the second race would guarantee that the next three over the line behind the top six automatic qualifiers would also advance.

With Vivian Cheruiyot (14:57.27) and Priscah Jepleting (14:58.07) advancing, Kenya will have three women in the final, as will the United States, led by Shalane Flanagan, the 10,000m bronze medallist, and Kara Goucher.

Also advancing were Russian Liliya Shobukhova (14:57.77), who broke the European record last month, and former 5000m World record holder Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey.

While the Defar-Dibaba show will take the spotlight, behind them several other notable double attempts will be undertaken. Galkina-Samitova won the first Olympic gold medal in the 3000m Steeplechase on Sunday, clocking a World record of 8:58.81. Abeylegesse won silver in the 10,000m on Friday with a European record 29:56.34 (the third fastest performance in history) in what very well might have been the finest ever women’s contest over the distance.

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