Posted: June 4, 2006

Athletics: World 5000M Record For Defar At Reebok Grand Prix

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

NEW YORK (03-Jun) -- With a sizzling 61.5 second closing lap, reigning Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar of Ethiopia, broke Elvan Abeylegesse's world 5000m record here at the Reebok Grand Prix, breaking the finish tape in 14:24.53. She shaved 15/100ths of a second off of Abeylegesse's mark set in Bergen in 2004.

After seeing that she had broken the record, she threw her hands up in the air, then fell face down on the track, wriggling with happiness.

"I was dreaming to have the 5000m world record in New York," said Defar to the crowd through an interpreter. "I am so happy to have the record in New York."

Christin Wurth took the race through 2 km in 5:47.7, but by 3 km (8:42.83) Defar was running alone in unusually cold conditions for late spring here. The track still wet after a long day of rain, Defar held steady at about 70 seconds per lap, but improved to 69.2 seconds for the pentultimate lap. The crowd, thinned somewhat after Justin Gatlin's 100m victory minutes earlier, cheered in approval as Defar had to swing wide to pass three lapped runners going through turn-3 before putting her second world record of the year in the books; she also set the 5-K mark on the roads at the Carlsbad 5000 last April (14:46).

Defar, 22, also won the World Indoor Championships at 3000m last March in Moscow.

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