London Diaries, Day 8: Meseret Defar Wins 5,000 meters! by Larry Eder

Meseret Defar celebrates, London 5,000m, by PhotoRun.net

Meseret Defar was the Olympic champion in 2004 in the 5,000 meters. In 2008, Tirunesh Dibaba took the gold and Defar took the bronze.

This time, Meseret was not playing around. Jo Pavey lead the 1,000 meters in 3:07.58. Elena Romagnolo of Italy lead through a 3:10 even slower kilometer, hitting the 2k in 6:17.35. Jo Pavey gave it another go, hitting the front and leading through 9:27.75, another 3:10 pace.

Dibaba en route, photo by PhotoRun.net

Meseret Defar was there, lurking and Tirunesh Dibaba, the gold medalist in the 10,000 meters, already, floating.

Dibaba had run a fine 10,000m in Nike Pre, then creamed Defar in the 5,000m in adidas Grand Prix. Tirunesh went to the front, floating along and dropping the pace to 2:57 per kilometer, hitting the 4k in 12:24.81.

So, this is when it got interesting.

Dibaba, Defar (Cheruiyot in background), 5,000m heats up,

by PhotoRun.net

Sally Kipyego, Vivian Cheruiyot, Meseret Defar in tow, Tirunesh Dibaba got real serious, dropping the pace to 2:40 for the final kilometer.

Dibaba, Cheruiyot and Defar puts some real estate between Kipyego and the three potential medalists.

It came down to the final straight away. Defar went by, or tried, and Dibaba held her off, until about 50 meters to go, as Meseret Defar went by for the win, running 15:04.25. Then, Vivian Cheruiyot went by, adding a silver to her bronze in the 10,000 meters. Vivian ran 15:04.73. In third, Tirunesh Dibaba ran 15:05.15.

Meseret Defar was ecstactic. She cried, she showed a picture of the Virgin Mary that looks like a scapular, that she had obviously prayed to, hoping that she could regain her form in 2004.

We guess it worked.

Position	Bib	Athlete	Country	Mark	.
1	1703	Meseret Defar	ETH	15:04.25	.
2	2327	Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot	KEN	15:04.73	.
3	1706	Tirunesh Dibaba	ETH	15:05.15	.
4	2336	Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego	KEN	15:05.79	.
5	1702	Gelete Burka	ETH	15:10.66	.
6	2333	Viola Jelagat Kibiwot	KEN	15:11.59	.
7	1871	Joanne Pavey	GBR	15:12.72	.
8	1849	Julia Bleasdale	GBR	15:14.55	.
9	2859	Olga Golovkina	RUS	15:17.88	.
10	1258	Shitaye Eshete	BRN	15:19.13	.
11	3297	Molly Huddle	USA	15:20.29	.
12	1256	Tejitu Daba	BRN	15:21.34	.
13	2881	Yelena Nagovitsyna	RUS	15:21.38	.
14	3281	Julie Culley	USA	15:28.22	.
15	2159	Elena Romagnolo	ITA	15:35.69	.

Intermediate	Bib	Athlete	Nation	Mark
1000m	1871	Joanne Pavey	GBR	3:07.58
2000m	2159	Elena Romagnolo	ITA	6:17.35
3000m	1871	Joanne Pavey	GBR	9:27.75
4000m	1706	Tirunesh Dibaba	ETH	12:24.81

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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