Bob Ramsak / Special to The Daily Yomiuri
OSAKA–Going through the motions. That’s about the best way to describe Olympic champion Meseret Defar’s journey to the 5,000 meters final at the IAAF world championships.
Biding her time in a lead pack of seven runners in a dawdling tactical race, there was never any doubt that the 23-year-old Ethiopian would take one of the five automatic qualifying spots. With 300 meters to go, she decided to kick to the victory anyway, reaching the line in 15 minutes 10.13 seconds in the second of two semifinal heats.
Sounding almost apologetic for a woman who’s added three world records to her resume this year, Defar said, “It’s very hot and humid, and a little bit difficult to run a fast race.” Not that it mattered in the least.
While 10,000-meter champion Tirunesh Dibaba’s decision to not defend her title over the shorter distance robbed Saturday evening’s final of some pre-race hype, in truth, she’d have had little chance against Defar if not 100 percent fit. Defar is simply that good.
Last June in Oslo, Defar clocked 14:16.63 over the distance, demolishing her own one-year-old record by nearly eight seconds, and last winter, set world records indoors for two miles and 5,000 meters. She’s run 14:30.18 or better four times; no one else has ever run that fast twice, and no one, besides Dibaba at her best, has a finishing kick as vicious as Defar’s.
Closest to Defar this year is Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, who easily advanced from an equally tactical first heat that wasn’t much faster. The tiny Kenyan–weighing in at 47 kilograms, ‘diminutive’ is too long a descriptor for the 23-year-old–shadowed Defar during her world record run in Oslo, and also dipped under the previous world mark here, clocking 14:22.51. Yet another Kenyan prodigy–she reached the 2000 Olympic final as a 17-year-old.
“I’ll try to go for it in the final,” said Cheruiyot, who was second in 15:06.54. “But I’m aware Defar has a strong kick. Maybe we will kick together.”
Winning the first hear was Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, the silver medallist in the 10,000 four days ago. One year Defar’s senior, the Ethiopian-born Abeylegesse has a score to settle with her former compatriot. She was the event’s previous world record until Defar first broke it in 2006, but reporting some leg pains after the race, her form is questionable.
As slow as the second heat was, it must have seemed an eternity to Kayoko Fukushi. The Japanese record holder at 14:53.22, she was seventh (15:19.67) in the first heat, forced to wait on the results of heat two before making her plans for Saturday night. She made it as the second slowest of the 15 qualifiers, to reach her second straight world championships 5000 final.