BEIJING (AFP) — Ethiopian star Tirunesh Dibaba tends to dominate most discussions when it comes to women’s long-distance running. But Dibaba’s team-mate Meseret Defar, the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 5,000 metres and triple world indoor champion in the 3,000m, comes to Beijing determined to tip the scales in her favour.
Defar saw Dibaba smash her world record over 5,000m this season at the Bislett Games in Oslo, but the 24-year-old fired back in Stockholm with a time just one second slower than the new mark.
“Those who thought I had disappeared should watch my performance in Stockholm,” said Defar, who has a 13-9 lead in head-to-head races with Dibaba.
“When I finished the race and saw the time, I was so disappointed. I was very depressed and cried. It is very painful to miss a world record by just one second.”
Defar’s performance in Stockholm ensured she will attend the Beijing Games as a potential major thorn in the side of Dibaba in her quest for a 5,000 and 10,000m double.
“I am happy with improving my personal best and using the race to get ready for Beijing,” said Defar, who has not raced against Dibaba since the World Athletics Final in September 2006.
Despite losing to compatriot Meselech Melkamu in the African Games for her first 5,000m defeat since September 2006, Defar otherwise enjoyed an outstanding season in 2007.
“My focus this year was always going to Beijing,” she said in reference to her time out from international competition this year.
“I just had two bad races this year in Addis Ababa (in the African Games) and Eugene (Oregon in the Prefontaine Classic),” Defar said, quoted by the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body.
“It was not a bad year at all, but I am happy to go the Olympics in good form after illness earlier in the year.”
In anticipation of some withering weather conditions in Beijing, Defar and her long-distance running team-mates have changed their training routines to include warm-weather sessions in Debrezeit, 45 kilometres from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
And Defar, who won gold in the 2004 Games despite being giving a starting spot only when Berhane Adere was dropped for disciplinary reasons, acknowledged a second Olympic title would not come easy.
“Nothing I have achieved so far compares to my victory in Athens four years ago,” she said. “It has changed my career and my life. It has also inspired many girls from Addis Ababa to take up the sport.
“But it is as difficult to win it for the second time. I know the world will be watching and everyone will be preparing to peak in these Games.”
However, Defar added she had not tired of top-class athletics.
“I want to win these titles over and over again. I want to win everything that is on offer and break every record there is to break.”