Posted: February 19, 2009  :

(RRW) Athletics: Defar Captures 5000M World Indoor Record In Stockholm

From David Monti © 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com Meseret Defar, who lost her 5000m world record to Tirunesh Dibaba last summer, evened the score tonight at the GE Galan meeting at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, clocking a new world indoor record of 14:24.37. That eclipsed Dibaba's 14:27.42 from the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January, 2007. Defar, 25, the reigning world 5000m champion, now holds both the world 3000m (8:23.72) and 5000m indoor records, and has also run the world's best ever time for two miles indoors (9:10.50). The two-mile mark is not recognized by the IAAF as a world record distance. Ethiopian women have now held the 5000m indoor record since Berhane Adere broke Romanian Gabriela Szabo's 1999 mark of 14:47.35 in January, 2004, in Stuttgart (14:39.29). Dibaba first broke Adere's mark in January, 2005, at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, clocking 14:32.93, then broke her own record two years ago in January. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest