Dibaba equals Radcliffe record

Tirunesh Dibaba won in Carlsbad on Sunday and equalled Paula Radcliffe’s 5000m road-race record.

The 19-year-old Ethiopian, just a fortnight after completing a long and short-course double at the World Cross Country Championships, clocked a time of 14 minutes 51 seconds at the US venue.

That matched the performance of Radcliffe, who set the previous best time when winning the Flora Light Women’s event in London’s Hyde Park on 14 September 2003.

Dibaba beat Kenyan Isabella Ochichi by four seconds and also bettered the runners-up’s USA All-Comers’ record - set in last year’s Carlsbad race - by two seconds.

Dejene Berhanu of Ethiopia easily won the men’s contest for the third successive year, in a time of 13min 10secs just ahead of Craig Mottram.