Tirunesh Dibaba and Meselech Melkamu won
women's 10,000m first and second respectively
Tigrai Online
August 01 2010
Ethiopia’s gold medal drought was ended on Saturday as Olympic Champion in the 10,000m, Tirunesh Dibaba, won in her speciality on the penultimate day of the 17th Safaricom Senior Africa Athletics Championship.
The gold immediately sent the sizable crowd of the Ethiopians in the stands into a frenzy as they finally got their national anthem to be played.
Former Africa 5,000m champion Meselech Melkamu was second in for the silver while Kenya’s World Linet Masai took bronze.
Dibaba won in 31:51.39 with Melkamu second in 31:55.50 while Masai was timed at 31:59.36.
Wude Ayalew Yimer was fourth in 32:29.92 having held on bravely to finish ahead of Kenyan Doris Chengeiywo’s 32.44.07 while Pauline Karikwiang was sixth in 33:12.34.
Tanzania’s trio of Restituta Kemi 34:06.42 finished in the seventh to ninth slots.
It was Kemu who took the initiative to pull away from the crowd, but her move failed to trigger the others to follow as she opened a 60-metre gap for the first seven laps which was 10 seconds faster than the pack behind.
Source Daily Nation, Read More