Likina Amebaw wins the 5000m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship (© Getty Images)
It’s become exceptionally rare in the modern era to see a major 5000m final boil down to anything but a last-lap burn-up, but at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sunday (13), Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw tore up that script in superb, scintillating fashion.
Soon after 3000m was reached in a steady 8:51.70, Amebaw launched an attack that carried her clear of the field, her 2:46 kilometre building a lead that grew to almost six seconds as she reached 4000m in 11:38.45.
With a lap to run, that lead was almost nine seconds, her compatriot Freweyni Hailu taking up the chase along with Jessica Hull of Australia, but by then it was too little, too late.
Amebaw hit the line in a Hungarian all-comers' record of 14:30.36, while Hull won the battle for second, setting a PB of 14:32.39, with Ethiopia’s Fantaye Belayneh taking third in 14:32.62.
Amebaw, who’s been based in Spain for several years, has missed out on several potential major championship appearances while in the process of obtaining Spanish citizenship, but has now reverted to run for Ethiopia. With a blazing last 3000m of 8:28.00, she earned the Ultimate trophy and the top prize of $150,000.
“I’m very happy to become the ultimate champion,” she said. “I was thinking I do not have too much of a sprint, so I was thinking halfway through the race that I've got to push.”
Hull was pleased with her performance, putting her ninth-place finish in the previous night’s 1500m firmly behind her.
“Me and my team wanted to give me the chance to run the 5000m but we didn't know how it was going to go,” she said. “I just trusted that the rail would open up, so I was trying to keep calm. I chatted to my teammate last week, who won the Diamond League final on the rail and I just repeated to myself: ‘Trust! It's going to be open.’ That is one of the coolest experiences.”
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics
