Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba clocked a world-leading time to win the women’s 1,500m at the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe, the first meeting of the IAAF World Indoor Tour, in Germany on Saturday.
The 27-year-old stopped the clock in 3:57.45 in front of a vociferous sell-out crowd of 4,500 at the Messe Halle Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre), just 2.28 seconds short of the 3:55.17 world indoor record time which she set at same meeting in 2014.
Dibaba‘s time ranks as the second fastest indoor 1500m time in history. She also clocked 4:00.13 in Karlsruhe in 2012, which is now the 10th fastest run of all-time.
German Konstanze Klosterhalfen finished second in 4:04.00 while Kenyans Beatrice Chepkoech and Winny Chebet settled for third and fourth places, clocking 4:08.33 and 4:09.45 respectively.
Ethiopian 1-2
Other Ethiopians Hagos Gebrhiwet and Yomif Kejelcha cruised to an Ethiopian 1-2 in the men’s 3000m. Gebrhiwet secured top honours in a world-leading time of 7.37.91 while Kejelcha followed in a personal best time of 7:38.67.
Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider, with his traditional strong late finishing kick, clocked 7:39.92 for third position ahead of 2017 European indoor champion Adel Mechaal of Spain (7:74.14).
Other IAAF World Indoor Tour legs are scheduled for Düsseldorf, Madrid, Boston and Toruń before the series’ conclusion in Glasgow on 25 February.
