Continuing on the theme hammered home in the preceding men’s 10,000 metres final, the strong Ethiopian contingent ran to easy wins in heats of the women’s 5000m.
Teenagers Tirunesh Dibaba and Sentayehu Ejigu swept the top two spots comfortably in heat one, clocking 15:00.66 and 15:01.31 respectively.
Dibaba, the reigning World champion and the slightly older Ejigu traded the lead but never lost joint control of the proceedings. In the second and much faster race, Meseret Defar dashed past World record holder Elvan Abeylegesse to a commanding 14:52.39 victory.
Canadian Emilie Mondor led the first race briefly, but quickly succumbed to the east African brigade and the mid-race exploits of China’s Sun Yingjie.
Yingjie, the bronze medallist in last year’s unforgettable 10,000 World Championship contest after controlling much of that race, had no answer for the finishing kick of Russians Yelena Zadorozhnaya or Liliya Shobukhova, who sprinted their way into Monday evening’s final.
Zadorozhnaya, sixth in last year’s World Championships, clocked 15:01.77, 9/100s of a second ahead of Shobukova. Edith Masai, a late entrant to the Kenyan squad after dropping out of her race at the Kenyan Trials, reached the line in fifth (15:01.92) to clinch the final spot. Yingjie faded to seventh (15:03.00), but advanced on time.
Sonia O’Sullivan, the defending Olympic silver medallist, led an extremely tight pack in the opening laps of the second race, before Abeylegesse briefly took command. As her compatriot did in the first heat, Xing Huina, the World Junior record holder in the 10,000, took her turn with the lead, but was followed by a closely-knit pack of ten.
After four kilometers, half a dozen runners remained in contention when Abeylegesse went to the front again, seemingly for good, until Defar dashed to the front with 150 metres to go. The 21-year-old Turk held on for second in 14:54.80, with Briton Jo Pavey (14:55.45), Kenyan Isabella Ochichi (14:55.69), and Huina (14:56.01) taking the remaining automatic qualifying spots. O’Sullivan, who holds every Irish record from the 800m to the marathon and competing in her fourth consecutive Olympics, held on for seventh (14:59.61) and advanced as well.
Non qualifiers of note included Kenyan Jane Wanjiku (15:14.57) and World Indoor championships bronze medallist Shayne Culpepper (15:40.02) of the U.S.
BR
