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By Bob Ramsak
OSLO – Tirunesh Dibaba’s assault on the women’s 5000m world record and another appearance by Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo look to provide the chief highlights at Friday evening’s ExxonMobil Bislett Games in Oslo.
Here in Oslo one year ago, Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar crushed her own record in the event with a scintillating 14:16.63. This year her Ethiopian compatriot, two-time world 10,000m champion Dibaba, said she wants to take a stab at the mark.
“I want to run very fast,” said Dibaba, who produced her own career best of 14:30.40 on the Bislett Stadium track in 2006. “But I can’t predict a time.”
Organizers have enlisted the services of Russian Anna Alminova to help with the pace-setting. Her duty is six, or perhaps seven laps at 68 seconds, setting up Dibaba to approach 3000m in an ambition 8:32 to 8:34. “Even an 8:42,” said athlete coordinator Steinar Hoen, “will be enough to continue for the record.”
The race will be quite a family affair with older sister Ejegayehu, the Olympic 10,000m silver medallist with 14:32.74 credentials, and younger sister Genzebe, the world junior Cross Country champion, also in the field.
Meanwhile, deciding to continue her pursuit of the $1 AF Golden League Jackpot is the 18-year-old Jelimo who over the course of the last 13 days has turned the women’s 800m upside down. Indeed, the recently-minted African record holder has blasted so much life into the event that Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1:53.28 world record, which has stood for just under a quarter of a century, just may be under threat. Perhaps not this weekend, but after back-to-back 1:55.76 and 1:54.99 performances that catapulted Jelimo into the event’s all-time top-10, the newly-minted African record holder is certainly the revelation of the season. With less than a half dozen outings over the distance to her credit, she can certainly go faster and the conventional wisdom is that she most likely will this weekend.
Though organizers have assembled another solid field – including world champion Janeth Jepkosgei, world indoor champion Tamysn Lewis, and Yulia Krevsun, the runner-up on Sunday in Berlin, among others—it’s difficult to imagine that any are ready to challenge Jelimo at this point in the season. In Berlin last Sunday, she won by an astounding four seconds.
Hoping to steal at least some of Jelimo’s thunder will the men’s 800, on paper the most solid contest on the program, with a field led by a pair of teenagers as well.
Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, will make his first 800m start since his thrilling gun-to-tape victory at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, where he clocked an indoor world-leading 1:44.81. The 18-year-old opened his season with a 3:39.71 career best in the 1500 in Malmo, Sweden, on Tuesday.
He’ll go head-to-head with Kenyan David Rudisha, the season’s world leader at 1:44.20, an impressive performance given it came at high altitude at the African Championships in Addis Ababa last month. Rudisha finished his breakout 2007 season with back-to-back victories at the Zurich and Brussels legs of the Golden League, and brings a l3-race win streak to Oslo. Also in the running is another 19-year-old, Abraham Chepkirwok, who set a Ugandan record of 1:44.53 with victory in Berlin last Sunday. Aiming to keep the youngsters in line will be South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who was second to Chepkirwok in Berlin last weekend and second behind Kaki in Valencia.
Organizers have attracted an all-star field in the women’s steeplechase which on paper could result in a revision of the all-time lists. A formidable Russian trio - world record holder Gulnara Samitova-Galkina (9:01.59), world champion Yekaterina Volkova (9:06.51), and Osaka silver medallist Tatyana Petrova (9:09.19) – tops the field, with a pair of quick Kenyans also taking the line: world Junior record holder Ruth Bisibori (9:24.51) and African record holder Eunice Jepkorir (9:14.52). Ethiopians Zemzem Ahmed (9:32.53) and Mekdes Bekele (9:32.05), who finished 1-2 at the African Championships, are also in the field.
The meet’s signature event, the Dream Mile, concludes the proceedings, but with a field noticeably thinned by Nike-sponsored athletes’ commitments to Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. In Oslo, Berlin winner Augustine Choge will start as the favorite. The 21-year-old Kenyan sailed to a powerful 3:31.57 win in the German capital, and will be looking to improve upon his runner-up finish here last year where he clocked his personal best of 3:51.62.
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