Ethiopian distance runner Gudaf Tsegay (© AFP / Getty Images)
World 5000m champion Gudaf Tsegay chopped 10 seconds from her PB to win the 10,000m in 29:29.73 at Ethiopia’s World Championships Trials, held in the Spanish town of Nerja on Friday (23).
Contesting just her second race at the distance, and competing on her 26th birthday, Tsegay reached the half-way point in 14:40, by which point she was already running alone. Her pace dropped in the second half, but only slightly as she won by almost half a minute from compatriot Ejgayehu Taye (29:57.45) and world indoor 3000m champion Lemlem Hailu (29:59.15), who both dipped inside 30 minutes.
Tsegay’s winning mark is the fourth-fastest time ever, and this was just the second 10,000m race in history in which three women have finished inside 30 minutes.
World cross-country silver medallist Berihu Aregawi, meanwhile, won the men’s race in 26:50.66, finishing one second ahead of Olympic champion Selemon Barega.
The duo passed through 3000m in 8:08 and 5000m in 13:34 before making a break from the rest of the field in the second half. Aregawi did most of the leading duties during the closing stages, but Barega remained on his shoulder. On the final lap, Aregawi managed to hold off Barega’s famed finishing speed, winning in 26:50.66 to Barega’s 26:51.87. 17-year-old Yismaw Dilu finished third in 27:08.85, the second-fastest time ever by an U18 athlete.
Tinch clinches sprint hurdles world lead with 12.96
Less than a month after winning three titles at the Division 2 NCAA Championships, and having twice broken 13 seconds but with wind speeds over the allowable limit, Cordell Tinch finally broke that barrier with legal wind at the Trackwired Arkansas Grand Prix in Fayetteville on Friday.
He won his heat comfortably in 13.09, then returned the track an hour later for the final, which he won in 12.96 (1.3m/s) – the fastest time in the world so far this year, and enough to climb into the world all-time top 20.
Two-time British champion Tade Ojora was second in a PB of 13.26, inside the qualifying standard for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
Elsewhere in Fayetteville, Tara Davis-Woodhall won the long jump with 6.99m (1.7m/s).
