Dibaba Sets World Indoor 5000m Record in Stockholm

Published by IAAF on February 19, 2015

A year ago Genzebe Dibaba demolished the 3000m world Indoor record at the XL-galan in the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm and when she returned this Thursday evening (19) she delivered the best kind of deja-vu experience for almost 10,000 spectators at the penultimate IAAF Indoor Permit meeting of the winter.

Despite having pace making help only for the first two kilometres in the 5000m, Dibaba was still capable of running the third world indoor record * of her career when she clocked a stunning 14:18.86 for 25 laps of an indoor track 

She took more than five seconds off the previous mark of 14:24:37 set by her compatriot Meseret Defar on the same track in 2009.

At 1000m, Dibaba was 1.2 seconds ahead; at 2000m, 3.0; at 3000m, 5.2; at 4000m, 6.0; and even though she couldn’t quite match Defar’s final lap 30.17 Dibaba still stopped the clock in a time that only two women - her sister and world record holder Tirunesh Dibaba and Defar - have beaten outdoors.

Her unofficial kilometre splits (to 0.1) were: 2:53.3, 2:51.5, 2:52.4, 2:54.6 and 2:47.1!