Ethiopian hot favorite for Olympic 5,000 meters

(BEIJING, June 11) -- Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, who shattered the women's world record for the 5,000 meters in Oslo, Norway, on Friday, June 6, will now be the hot favorite to win this event at the Beijing Olympic Games in August. Running at the world-famous Bislett stadium, she clocked 14 minutes 11.15 seconds, beating the previous record by an impressive 5.48 seconds. The previous record (14 minutes 16.63 seconds) was held by her compatriot, Meseret Defar, set at the same stadium 12 months earlier.

Dibaba, who is 21 years old, is also a top-class 10,000 meter runner. After the race, she said that, although she had planned to run a fast race, she did not expect to break the world record – and by such a big margin.

A three-time winner of (senior) world cross-country races – she also won once as a junior - Dibaba is also the only woman ever to have won the 5,000/10,000 meter double at the World Championships. At the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, she won the bronze medal when finishing third in the 5,000 meters.

Dibaba's world record run in Norway last weekend was described as her "key Olympic qualifier for the 5,000 meters", according to the IAAF website. She is also planning to run in the 10,000 meters in Beijing. With this in mind, she is due to race at this distance in the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, tomorrow, June 12.