Diaba retains title

Tirunesh Dibaba battled back from the brink of defeat to retain her World Championships 10,000 metres title in Osaka on Saturday night.

The Ethiopian became involved in some bumping and barging and fell off the pace after 14 laps – at one stage was trailing the leaders by 50 metres.

But Dibaba, who is bidding to match her 5,000m/10,000m double of two years ago in Helsinki, regained contact with nine and a half laps remaining.

And after all had seemed lost, she used her renowned finishing speed to score a remarkable victory ahead of Elvan Abeylegesse and Kara Goucher.

Former world 5,000m record holder Abeylegesse, who moved to Turkey from Ethiopia eight years ago, had no answer as Dibaba powered to victory in a time of 31minutes 55.41seconds.

Dibaba’s surge saw Abeylegesse finish over 20 metres behind in a time of 31min 59.40sec with America’s Kara Goucher clinching the bronze medal with a season’s best 32:02.05.

Carolina Kluft remains on course to become the first woman to win three successive heptathlon titles after a thrilling display on the opening day.

The 24-year-old Swede had a marvellous first session, equalling her 100m hurdles best before posting a new high jump personal mark and achieving season leading performances in both the shot put and 200m.

The Olympic champion ended the day on a score of 4162 points after four events ahead of Lyudmila Blonska and Kelly Sotherton.

The Ukrainian achieved a tally of 4014pts while Great Britain’s Olympic bronze medalist totalled 3989pts.

“I am very satisfied with today’s results, very happy with the first day,” said Kluft.

“Tomorrow I will try to continue like this, to keep it up.

“Well, the 200 metres were not perfect. Now I have to rest.”