Yomi Omogbeja (27/08/2005)

Ethiopia's Olympic champion Meseret Defar has broken the African 5000m record, held by compatriot Berhane Adere, at the 29th Van Damme Memorial - IAAF/TDK Golden League meeting in Brussels.

Defar pulled away from Adere with 200m to go to win comfortably in 14:28.98, relegating Adere's 14:29:32 mark to the history books.

She aslo overtook the 2005 world lead time (14:32.42) set by fellow countrywoman Tirunesh Dibaba in New York last June and the meeting record (14:42.64) held by Kenyan Edith Masai since September 2004.

Defar's time is the third fastest time in history with Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse world record of 14:24.68 set in Bergen June 2004 still the elusive target.

"I'm extremely happy with this African record. During the race I never thought about the time, I was only fighting," she said.

"But there were so many girls pushing, that we had to run a very fast race. It was definitely my best win of the season."

Adere was placed second in a season's best time of 14:31.09, compatriot Ejegayehu Dibaba was third in a season's best 14:37.34, whilst Kenyan Isabella Ochichi was fourth with a personal best 14:38.21.

Click here for the Full Result of the race