Ethiopia’s superstar distance runner Meseret Defar, who lost her 5000m world record to Tirunesh Dibaba last summer, evened the score tonight (Feb. 18, 2009) at the GE Galan meeting at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, clocking a new world indoor record of 14:24.37. That eclipsed Dibaba’s 14:27.42 from the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January, 2007.

Meseret Defar, 25, the reigning world 5000m champion, now holds both the world 3000m (8:23.72) and 5000m indoor records, and has also run the world’s best ever time for two miles indoors (9:10.50). The two-mile mark is not recognized by the IAAF as a world record distance.

Ethiopian women have now held the 5000m indoor record since Berhane Adere broke Romanian Gabriela Szabo’s 1999 mark of 14:47.35 in January, 2004, in Stuttgart (14:39.29). Tirunesh Dibaba first broke Berhane Adere’s mark in January, 2005, at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, clocking 14:32.93, then broke her own record two years ago in January.

– Race Results Weekly