Dibaba the new distance Queen
Len Johnson | August 23, 2008
The Sydney Morning Herald
Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie may not yet have quite settled the issue as to who is the current emperor of Ethiopian distance running; but the matter of who is the empress is settled.
All hail empress Tirunesh Dibaba. Last night she kept her cool in a race that was as up-and-down as a 5pm office elevator, before sprinting away to complete an historic Olympic 5000/10,000 metres double, the first-ever women's distance double.
Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey was again second with Dibaba's great rival and teammate, Meseret Defar third. The pair shared a victory lap under the Ethiopian flag. Despite the heat and humidity, it seemed to be quite cool in there.
The pair have been great, and reportedly, not friendly rivals.
At the world championships in Osaka last year, Dibaba won the 10,000, Defar the 5000. This year, Dibaba broke Defar's world record by five seconds in Oslo, running 14:11.15. Defar had a real crack at getting it back six weeks later in Stockholm, running a personal best of 14:12.88 but fa