Double for Dibaba

Tirunesh Dibaba became the first athlete to achieve the 5000 and 10000 metres double when she defended her title over the shorter distance at the World Championship in Helsinki.

Dibaba clocked a championship record time of 14minutes 38.59seconds and led her team-mates across the line as Ethiopian runners claimed all three championship medals – just as they did in last Saturday’s 10000m.

Her victory was not as clear cut as a week earlier with Meseret Defar matching her stride for stride until the final 50m.

But the 19-year, winner of both this year’s IAAF World Cross-Country long and short gold medals, put in a decisive and winning turn of pace.

Defar fell away, finishing third in 14:39.54, while the winner’s elder sister Ejegayehu, third in the 10,000m, again claimed bronze in 14:42.47.