Leading up to last Friday’s Golden League meet in Paris, there were couple of upbeat write-ups on Tirunesh Dibaba that ranged from romance to richness. But, as the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And Tirunesh did not show much in Paris even though she still got a comfortable win.
Despite the win, the slow time of 15:21 she turned in for the race has many (i.e. me) scratching their head. For perspective, Meseret Defar’s recent record setting run in Oslo was more than a minute faster than Tirunesh’s run in Paris. In other words, Meseret would have finished more than a full lap ahead of Tirunesh. At the Paris meet last year, Tirunesh beat Meseret in a close race but this time Meseret looks to be a lap ahead and strong favorite for the gold in Osaka.
This is not exactly what we expected to see from the Dueling D’s for the 2007 season! Duels aside, Tirunesh may be in serious trouble for the upcoming World Championships in Osaka. She has already announced that she will not race again until World Championships. She also has not run *any* 10000M race since her victory at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki.
Still, Tirunesh says she intends to defend both her 5000M and 10000M title in Osaka. For the time being, Meseret Defar and Mestewat Tufa appear to be the favorites for Osaka’s 5000M/10000M race.
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