Meseret Defar of Ethiopa won the gold medal in the women’s 5,000-meter race Friday night in the 2012 London Olympics in a race unsurprisingly dominated by East African nations. The top six spots were taken by three Ethiopians and three Kenyans, with Kenya’s Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot taking the silver and Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, the gold medalist at the 2008 Olympics, took bronze.
Women’s 5000m Final: Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar Takes Gold
Defar finished in 15:04.25, a full half-second ahead of Cheruiyot, who finished in 15:04.74. Defar was the bronze medalist in Beijing and gold medalist in Athens in 2004, where she was just 20 years old. She’s now 28 but is running as fast as ever. Her countrywoman, Dibaba — whose nickname is “Baby-Faced Destroyer” — is 27, so it’s not ridiculous to think they’ll again share the medal stand in Rio in 2016.
Kenya, interestingly enough, has never won gold in the 5k, despite being dominant in all the races with longer distances, meaning Cheruiyot’s finish is the best in her country’s history. She should be happy with that.
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