Posted: July 15, 2006

Athletics: Bekele Wins Deepest 5000M Ever At Golden Gala

From David Monti

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

By Bob Ramsak

ROME (14-Jul) -- The deepest ever men’s 5000m, an American record in the steeplechase, a convincing win by Tirunesh Dibaba and a pair of world-leading performances highlighted the distance portion at the Borotalco Golden Gala, the third stop of the six-meet Golden League series at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

Kenenisa Bekele proved to an all-star cast that he is still very much “the man” in the long distances. With a long sustained kick, the world record holder handily held off strong homestretch efforts by Saif Saaeed Shaheen and Isaac Songok to win in 12:51.44, leading a parade of nine others below 13 minutes, the first time that still-formidable barrier had ever been broken by ten men in one race. Though marginally slower than his win in Paris, his kick over the final 100 meters rendered Shaheen’s closing effort an exercise in futility. Nonetheless, Shaheen’s 12:51.98 was an Asian record –-but not a personal best-- while Songok, who handily defeated Bekele in Oslo last month, lowered his season’s best to 12:52.39. Ethiopians Tariku Bekele (12:53.81) and 16-year-old Abreham Cherkos (12:54.19) notched personal bests. Places five through 11 recorded the fastest-ever times for those positions.

In the women’s race, it was Tirunesh Dibaba who proved her superiority over world record holder and compatriot Meseret Defar. For the second week in a row, the two-time world champion out-kicked Defar, but this time she did it from the front off of a slow pace over the final 300 meters en route to her 14:52.37 win, more than a full second ahead of Defar’s 14:53.51 to stay alive in the $1 million Golden League Jackpot hunt. Gelete Burka and Berhane Adere filled out an Ethiopian top-four sweep; further back, American Jen Rhines improved her personal best to 15:05.24, finishing 12th.

Unchallenged and mostly running alone, Paul Kipsiele Koech burst to a hard-earned 7:59.94 victory in the steeplechase, the season’s second sub-8:00 clocking. But perhaps the biggest news in the race was Dan Lincoln’s 8:08.82 performance, to finally eclipse the U.S. record of 8:09.17 set nearly 21 years ago by Henry Marsh.

“That’s a number I’ve been chasing for a long time,” said Lincoln, a former NCAA standout at the University of Arkansas and now a medical student. “I just tried to focus on competing. I just cleared my head in the middle of the race and tried to stay calm.”

After back-to-back wins in Rome, world champion Rashid Ramzi wanted to make his third a memorable one. Requesting a world record pace on the same track where Hicham El Guerrouj set the current 3:26.00 standard eight years ago, the 25-year-old Moroccan-born Bahraini made a brave effort until the weight of his idol’s feat took its toll in the race’s waning stages.

After a blistering 1:48 for the first 800, the tempo slowed out of record reach by the 1200 point, with Ramzi leading Kenyans Daniel Kipchirchir Komen and Alex Kipchirchir, eventually resulting in a thrilling homestretch duel between Ramzi and Komen. The Kenyan overtook Ramzi in the last few strides en route to a 3:29.02 world leader, just ahead of Ramzi’s 3:29.14 Asian record. In a remarkably deep race, the top-10 all reached the line in under 3:33.00, five with new career bests, while American Chris Lukezic improved his personal best for the second time in six days, clocking 3:33.28.

Besides Dibaba, Jerey Wariner, Sanya Richards and Asafa Powell all remained in the hunt for a slice of the $1 million IAAF Golden League Jackpot. Bekele, 100 meter hurdles winner Susanna Kallur of Sweden, high jumper Blanka Vlasic of Croatia, long jumper Irving Saladino of Panama, and javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway each collected their second Golden League win, to remain eligible for a piece of a $500,000 jackpot.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was turned in by Amine Laalou in the 800, who produced an impressive homestretch run of his own en route to a 1:43.25 world leader and Moroccan national record. Behind him, U.S. champion Khadevis Robinson produced the finest finishing straight effort of his own en route to a career best 1:43.86 after running down Saudi Mohammed Al-Salhi, whose 1:43.99 was also a national record. For the second race in a row, Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy was never a factor. A distant seventh entering the final turn, he managed to move up just a couple places to a well-beaten fifth in 1:45.28.

After several high caliber races in recent weeks, the women’s two-lapper, the evening’s final event, was almost a letdown. World champion Zulia Calatayud, who was outrun by Kenyan record holder Janeth Jepkosgei in Lausanne on Tuesday, returned the favor here to win in 1:59.35, with American champion Hazel Clark squeezing by to finish second ahead of the Kenyan, 1:59.83 to 1:59.86.

After a month’s break and after the European Championships, the Golden League series resumes with the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich on August 18, the last to be held at Letzigrund stadium.

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