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First track gold goes to Ethiopia

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-16 09:09

Long-distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba took the gold in the women's 10,000 metre race yesterday evening, earning Ethiopia the first medal in the track events.

Dibaba won the 10,000m in an Olympic record 29 minutes, 54.66 seconds - the second fastest time ever for a woman at that distance.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia celebrates winning the women's 10,000m final of the athletics competition in the National Stadium yesterday. Elvan Abeylegesse (3045) of Turkey finished second. Reuters

The two-time 10,000 world champion sat just behind Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse -- who was born in Ethiopia -- until the start of the last lap, then went to the front with 350 meters to go.

She surged ahead down the back stretch and finished almost two seconds clear of Abeylegesse, who took silver in 29:56.34. The pair were only the second and third women to break the 30-minute barrier.

Dibaba's time of 29:54.66 was enough to break the old Olympic record of 30:17.49 set by fellow Ethiopian Derartu Tulu. Abeylegess of Turkey who ran a time of 29:56.34 also broke the old mark. Wang Junxia of China still holds the world record set in 1993 of 29:31.78.

The bronze went to Shalane Flanagan of the United States, who ran 30:22:22.

Yesterday's victory complete's an impressive collection of big titles for the two-time world champion. For her part, second-place Abeylegesse got the first ever medal for Turkey's women

Victory for Dibaba came after after a 5,000m bronze in 2004. Only aged 22, Dibaba also has 5,000m world titles from 2003 and 2005, and 10,000 crowns from 2005 and 2007. She also plans to run the 5,000 in Beijing.

The women's 10,000 metres was the first medal event on the track on the opening day of the athletics program.

The race yesterday was a fast one. Dibaba kicked off from the start, staying with the leading pack all the way to the end.

Loran Kiplagat, of the Netherlands, started at the head of the pack early on. The former Kenyan led other runners for more than three minutes until she was bypassed by Abeylegesse, who stayed ahead until the very last and Dibaba's final attack.

Her second-place finish is bitter medicine for Abeylegesse, who finished second to Dibaba at last year's World Championships in Osaka.

The leading pair were neck-to-neck for the last six laps.

Britain's Jo Pavey, who came 12th, simply could not keep up. She told the BBC that the pace was too much despite strong training.

"I'm disappointed, you feel like you've made a fool of yourself," Pavey told BBC Sport. "It was such a blistering pace."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/16/2008 page8)