Ayana Exceeds All Expectations in Rabat

Published by IAAF on May 23, 2016

The meeting organisers wisely staged the women’s 5000m as the finale of the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat and their shrewd gamble on the shape of Almaz Ayana paid off as the slender Ethiopian sped to a world-leading time of 14:16.31 on Sunday (22).

The quality of her performance can be seen by the fact that it was the fifth fastest time ever and it would have been a personal best and IAAF Diamond League record for Ayana – who stands at number three on the all-time list behind her compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar – but for the fact that she ran 14:14.32 12 months ago in Shanghai.

However, it devastated the previous standards for the meeting record and African all-comers’ record, in both cases by almost 30 seconds.

For the first three kilometres, Ayana was on course to challenge the world record of Dibaba, which has stood as 14:11.15 since 2008.