Fast distance races in Stockholm
Distance running fans got their money's worth at the GE Galan meeting in Stockholm.
The best race of the evening was the men's 3000m where Kenya's Augustine Choge clocked a world-leading 7:31.75, narrowly defeating Ethiopia's Tariku Bekele by just 3/100ths of a second. In all, six men broke 7 minutes, 35 seconds, including France's Bob Tahri who smashed his own national record by five seconds, clocking 7:33.73.
The women's 5000m also produced fast times, led by Meseret Defar's world-leading 14:24.79, a mark which was just 42/100ths of a second slower than her own world indoor record set at the same meeting last year. Even more remarkably, Defar's run in Stockholm came just four days after she ran a world-leading time for 3000m in Stuttgart (8:24.46).
Second place Alemitu Bekele, an Ethiopian-born Turk, broke Gabriela Szabo's European record by clocking 14:46.44 to Szabo's 14:47.35 set in Dortmund in 1999.
In other events, Sudan's Abubaker Kaki defeated Russia's Yuriy Borzakovskiy in the 800m, 1:46.29 to 1:46.51, and Ethiopia's Kalkidan Gezahegn got her second victory of the indoor season, beating Russia's Anna Alminova in the 1500m, 4:03.28 to 4:04.36.
By David Monti with Peter Larsson (c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; Used with permission
