As she ran through the finish line of the women's 5000m final last week at the London Olympics, Ethiopian runner Meseret Defar did two..
Meseret Defar
Ethiopian long-distance runner (born )
Meseret Defar Tola (Amharic: መሠረት ደፋር; born 19 November ) is an Ethiopian long-distancerunner who competes chiefly in the 3, metres and 5, metres events.
She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including Olympic and World Championshipgold medals over 5, metres. She broke the world record in the event in , broke it again in and held it until , when fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba beat her time.
Meseret Defar was gunning for her own 11-year-old meeting record of 8:30.05 in the women's 3000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
In on a track in Brussels Belgium, she became the only woman with a 2-mile run in less than 9 minutes (). This was an improvement on the world record by 11 seconds.[4]
Defar has been successful in the 5, m at the Olympic Games, taking gold at the London Olympics and Athens Olympics and bronze at the Beijing Olympics.
She has experienced similar success in the World Championships, taking silver in the Helsinki Championships and gold at the Osaka Championships.
Defar held the indoor records for the metre