“If I had followed her [Ayana], I wouldn't have won a medal. I know my capacity these days because my training for this race was very short," said Dibaba, who only began her build-up to this race as recently as two months’ ago. But even Dibaba at her most imperious might have struggled to stick with Ayana, who was consistently lapping at under 70-second pace per lap. Her fifth kilometre - covered in 2:49.18 - even represented world record pace for the 5000m, let alone for the 10,000m. Aside from Dibaba and Aprot, the second group included the last two world cross country champions - Irene Cheptai and Agnes Tirop - but for all of their titles and credentials, they were losing nearly 10 seconds with each kilometre.

Source: Ethiopian News August 05, 2017 22:07 UTC