There was no world record in the women’s 5000m at the Diamond League in Rome on Thursday (June 6) but Beatrice Chebet of Kenya ran the second fastest time in history as she clocked a blistering 14:03.69 to win in style.
Chebet was chasing Gudaf Tsegay’s world record of 14:00.21 and Tsegay was also in this race, but the Ethiopian blew up with four laps to go, eventually finishing fifth.
After Winnie Nanyondo and Margaret Akidor had set the early pace, Chebet took over as the leaders passed 3000m in 8:32. The Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion then increased the pace, breaking up the field and seeing off Tsegay’s challenge as she established a big lead.
Romping away, Chebet won by 16 seconds from Freweyni Hailu of Ethiopia, who clocked 14:19.33 in second.
Racing in front of her home crowd, Nadia Battocletti smashed her Italian record by eight seconds with 14:23.15 in third. After boldly going with the early pace, Battocletti got dropped and appeared to fade mid-race but she recovered to finish strongly to go No.2 on the European all-time rankings behind Sifan Hassan.
Birke Haylom of Ethiopia was fourth in 14:24.20 with Josette Andrews the best of an American trio with a PB of 14:25.37.
One week before the British 10,000m trials in Birmingham, Britain’s Megan Keith endured a lonely race as she finished at the back of the field in 15:16.91, narrowly avoiding being lapped by Chebet.
The winner, who had gone No.2 on the world all-time 3000 rankings in Rabat last month with 8:11.56, said: “I just said, ‘let’s run my own race today’. I was planning to run 14:15, but I felt like my body was moving and I decided to go. My body is in a good shape and I am capable of of the world record. So now I am going home and will prepare for it.”
Battocletti said: “Wow! I was thinking about beating the national record but not this soon and not in this way. Today’s aim was to improve my PB and it worked.
“This is incredible, I guess this is the second fastest time ran by a European. Amazing. The season is long and I hope to be able to keep the emotion and the shape.”
Source: AW
