Posted: March 29, 2007

Athletics: World Record Holder Defar Leads Carlsbad Elites

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com Meseret Defar, the Race Results Weekly Runner of the Year for 2006 and the world record holder for both 5000m on the track and 5 km on the road, will return to Carlsbad this Sunday to defend her title. The event, which will be the 22nd annual, has hosted 16 world records, including Defar's 14:46 from last year. "I am coming back to the Carlsbad 5000 to break my record," Defar said in a prepared statement circulated by event organizers, Elite Racing. "I feel I can run closer to 14:40." Defar, 24, has been on a roll since her 14:46 Carlsbad 5000 world record last spring, which slashed five seconds off countrywoman Tirunesh Dibaba’s 2005 mark. In 2006 Track & Field News ranked Defar as the number two women’s track and field athlete in the world as she set a new world record at 5,000 meters in New York City on June 3 (14:24.53) to go along with her 5-K road record at Carlsbad. Defar recently took four seconds off the previous world indoor 3000m record at the Sparkassen Cup indoor meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, finishing in 8:23.72. Also expected to contest the women's race will be U.S. Olympians Jen Rhines and Kate O'Neill, and the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile champion from last year, Sara Hall. Canadian Olympian Malindi Elmore will also compete. The men's field has been depleted because several of the top contenders had to be hospitalized after the recent IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa. This includes defending champion, Abreham Cherkos Feleke of Ethiopia, and his World Cross teammates Tarkiu Bekele, the younger brother of Kenenisa Bekele, and Ibrahim Gashu, fourth at Carlsbad last year. "We lost those three," said Mike Long, the elite athlete coordinater for the event, in a telephone interview. "The idea was for the three of them to work together to break the world record on the roads (12:59.5). They didn't care who won." A $10,000 bonus is on offer for a world record for either the men's or women's winner. Boaz Cheboiywo of Kenya now leads the men's field, and should get a strong challenge from Mexican Juan Luis Barrios and Ethiopians Ali Abdosh and Meregu Zewdie. PHOTO: Meseret Defar (Courtesy of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games) Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest