By David Monti with Wim Van Hemert
Double Olympic gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba scorched her first-ever attempt at 15 kilometers on the road in Nijmegen, Netherlands, today, stopping the clock at the 26th Fortis Zevenheuvelenloop in 46 minutes and 28 seconds, a pending IAAF world record. The 24 year-old Ethiopian surpassed Japanese Kayoko Fukushi's time of 46:55 set en route to a half-marathon finish in Marugame, Japan, in 2006.
At the 10-K mark, Dibaba was just about level with world record schedule (31:23), but accelerated to cover the last 5 km in a breathtaking 15:05.
"It was my first race on the road," Dibaba said incorrectly (she ran 14:51 at the Carlsbad 5000 in California in 2005). "Although I trained a lot together with my husband for this race, a race is something different. I did not know what I could expect."
Dibaba's husband, Sileshi Sihine, won the men's title in 42:14, the same time given to second place Nicholas Kiprono of Uganda who set a national record.
"It feels good as you hear after the finish that your husband also has won," said Dibaba.
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