OSAKA, Japan (AFP) — Ethiopia’s Olympic champion Meseret Defar timed her run to perfection to win her first world title in the women’s 5,000 metres on Saturday.
The world record holder stalked the front runner for most of the race before sprinting away with 200 metres to go, finishing in a slow 14 minutes 57.91 seconds.
Vivian Cheruiyot took silver in 14:58.50 with team-mate Priscah Jepleting Cherono winning the all-Kenyan dash for bronze in 14:59.21.
The 23-year-old Defar, who set the world record 14:16.63 just two months ago, was the hot favourite in a race missing Ethiopia’s two-time defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba through injury.
And the double African Games champion, who took silver behind Dibaba in 2005, showed her class as she tracked the front-runner all the way before bursting free at the last lap.
Cheruiyot, who owns the second fastest 5,000m in history, tried to go with her as the tightly bunched field finally opened up.
Kenya’s Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet finished fourth with Turkey’s 10,000m silver medallist Elvan Abeylegesse, a former world record holder over this distance, fifth.
Defar’s long-standing rival Dibaba pulled out of the race citing stomach problems, depriving fans of one of the world championships’ most hotly awaited showdowns.
Dibaba, who had successfully defended her 10,000m title, is a double world champion over 5,000m and her races with Defar are legendary.
Last year Defar beat Dibaba in Berlin to cut significantly her share of the Golden League jackpot, increasing reported tensions between them.
Defar beat Dibaba into third place when she took the Athens Olympic title and she has lowered the world record twice in the past two seasons, most recently in Oslo this June.
Ethiopians swept the board at the last world championships, with Dibaba, Defar, Dibaba’s sister Ejagayou and Meselech Melkamu finishing one, two, three and four in Helsinki.
Cheruiyot’s silver, heading a Kenyan two, three, four, improved on her seventh-place finish in 2005.