Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba celebrates after winning the women’s 10,000m at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships, in Osaka. (Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)
(CBC) — Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba set a new world 5,000m record at the Bislett Games Golden League Meet in Oslo Friday.
Her time of 14:11.15 smashed her fellow Ethiopian Meseret Defar’s mark of 14:16.63 on a night with perfect running conditions. Lucy Wangui of Kenya finished a distant second in 14:33.39 while Dibaba’s older sister Ejegayehu claimed 3rd in 14:36.78
Dibaba, who turned 23 on June 1, followed the early pacemaking of Russia’s Anna Alminova and her sister through 3km, which she reached in 8:38.83. That is faster than the world leading time for the distance of 8:42.96 set by Russia’s Gulnara Samitova- Galkina. Dibaba broke away shortly after that point to shatter the world record.
Earlier this year, Dibaba captured the IAAF world cross country title in Edinburgh and was the 2007 IAAF world champion at 10,000m.
Megan Metcalfe of Edmonton finished a disappointing 14th in 15:26.82, well off the Olympic A standard of 15:09.00. This was her fourth 5,000m race of the season and clearly a fine opportunity to achieve the standard as a rash of personal bests were set. She has until July 6 to achieve the mark.
Defar has set up a world record attempt at Sunday’s Pre Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Other Canadian athletes chasing Olympic standards came up short.
Adam Kunkel, a finalist at the 2007 IAAF World Championships, finished 7th in the 400m hurdles in a mediocre time of 50.99 seconds. A year ago he set the Canadian record with a time of 48.24 in winning the Pan American games. Since he was in the world’s top-eight last year he need only run the Olympic B standard of 49.50.
The race was won by Bershawn Jackson of the United States in a time of 48.15 seconds, the second fastest in the world this year. Jamaica’s Danny McFarlane finished in 48.58 seconds to take second, with L.J. Van Zeyl of South Africa also dipping under 49 seconds in a time of 48.84.
“I am a little bit disappointed I had a few delays with my flights this week but I didn’t think the jet lag would bug me,” said Kunkel afterwards. “All in all I was lacking power over the last 150 metres. I couldn’t hold onto my momentum.
“I am running in Spain and then in Prague. I will try to take it a little more conservatively. I ran pretty aggressive tonight, I went out darn near my Canadian record pace and I ultimately paid for it.”
Nicole Forrester cleared 1.90m to finish 8th in the women’s high jump. After winning a world class meet in Hengelo last month with 1.93m she has been in search of the Olympic A+ standard of 1.95m. Tonight she missed three times at 1.94m.
The Canadian record of 1.98m held by Debbie Brill has stood since 1984.
Blanka Vlasic of Croatia continues her streak of super performances, winning the event in a season best of 2.04m. The world record of 2.09m is held by Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria.
Ariane Friedrich of Germany finished 2nd with a jump of 1.98m. There was a tie for 3rd place as Spain’s Ruth Beitia and Ariane Friedrich of the Ukraine both cleared 1.94m.
Though she won the silver medal at the 2006 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Forrester has yet to make either a world championship or Olympic games final.
Sudan’s reigning world indoor 800m champion, Abubaker Kaki, beat the African champion David Rudisha of Kenya to win the 800m in a stunning world junior record of 1:42.69.
The 18 year old had hoped to run below 1:43 some time this season. This was his first 800m since capturing Sudan’s first ever world championship gold medal in Valencia, Spain in March.
Rudisha ran 1:43.72 for second while Mbulaena Mulaudzi of South Africa, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, finished 3rd in 1:44.04.
Five days after a shocking loss to 2007 IAAF world championship silver medalist LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner, the reigning Olympic and world champion, destroyed the Oslo field to win in a world leading time of 43.98 seconds.
Chris Brown of the Bahamas, who was runner-up to Canada’s Tyler Christopher at the 2008 World Indoor Championships last March, finished 2nd in 44.40 seconds.
Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas, The 2007 IAAF World Championships 100m silver medalist, won the men’s 100m in a time of 9.98 seconds ahead of Michael Rodgers of the U.S. who was timed at 10.04.
Marc Burns of Trinidad was 3rd in 10.07. The runners were aided by a tail wind of +2.3 m/s, slightly over the legal limit of +2.0 m/s. The times therefore won’t be counted in world rankings.