Genzebe Dibaba Gets World Record #6, Runs 5:23.75 for 2,000 Meters in Sabadell, Spain
By LetsRun.com
February 7, 2017
In what is becoming an annual tradition, Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba set another world record, this time in the 2,000-meter run in Sabadell, Spain, on Tuesday, crossing the finish line in 5:23.75. Not only was the mark faster than Gabriela Szabo‘s former world indoor best of 5:30.53, but it also bettered Sonia O’Sullivan‘s world record of 5:25.36, set outdoors in 1994. So, assuming the mark is ratified, Dibaba will not only own a new world indoor best but a new world record as well (the IAAF does not recognize an official world record for the indoor 2000m).
This is the fourth year in a row that Dibaba has set a world record indoors as she broke the indoor 1500 and 3000 records in 2014, the indoor 5000 record in 2015 and the indoor mile record last year. According to the IAAF, Dibaba ran a slight negative split, running the first 1k in 2:42.65 and the second in 2:41.10. We timed her at an unofficial 63.9 for the final 400 and 31.7 for the final lap. Watch below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM7znVcie1M
Dibaba has two more world record attempts lined up this winter. She will try to break her indoor 1500 mark of 3:55.17 on Friday at the Copernicus Cup in Poland before taking aim at Maria Mutola‘s indoor 1,000-meter world record of 2:30.94 in Madrid on February 24.
Sabadell, the site of Dibaba’s most recent world record on Tuesday, was also where her coach Jama Aden was arrested last year after drugs were found in the room of one of his athletes. Dibaba was staying in the hotel at the time, but neither she nor Aden has been charged with wrongdoing. Aden has denied supplying his athletes with performance-enhancing drugs while Dibaba proclaimed at the Olympics that she was “crystal clean from doping.”
Genzebe Dibaba’s world records
1500m: 3:50.07 Monaco, 7/17/2015
Indoor 1500m: 3:55.17 Karlsruhe, 2/1/2014
Indoor mile: 4:13.3 Stockholm, 2/17/2016
2000m: 5:23.75 Sabadell, 2/7/2017
Indoor 3000m: 8:16.60 Stockholm, 2/6/2014
Indoor 2 mile*: 9:00.48 Birmingham, 2/15/2014
Indoor 5000m: 14:18.86 Stockholm, 2/19/2015
*world indoor best
Talk about the race on our fan forum / messageboard. MB: The Dibaba FREAK SHOW Continues… New W.R. 2000m – 5:23.75.