Hot Defar step ahead of 5000 pack
The Daily Yomiuri, Japan - August 29, 2007
Going through the motions. That's about the best way to describe Olympic champion Meseret Defar's journey to the 5,000 meters final at the IAAF world championships.
Biding her time in a lead pack of seven runners in a dawdling tactical race, there was never any doubt that the 23-year-old Ethiopian would take one of the five automatic qualifying spots. With 300 meters to go, she decided to kick to the victory anyway, reaching the line in 15 minutes 10.13 seconds in the second of two semifinal heats.
Sounding almost apologetic for a woman who's added three world records to her resume this year, Defar said, "It's very hot and humid, and a little bit difficult to run a fast race." Not that it mattered in the least.
While 10,000-meter champion Tirunesh Dibaba's decision to not defend her title over the shorter distance robbed Saturday evening's final of some pre-race hype, in truth, she'd have had little chance against Defar if not 100 percent fit. Defar is simply that good.
Last June in Oslo, Defar clocked 14:16.63 over the distance, demolishing her own one-year-old record by nearly eight seconds, and last winter, set world records indoors for two miles and 5,000 meters. She's run 14:30.18 or better four times; no one else has ever run that fast twice, and no one, besides Dibaba at her best, has a finishing kick as vicious as Defar's ...