Thursday May
1, 2008 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Meselech Melkamu delivered
the biggest surprise of the 16th CAA African Athletics Championships
so far by defeating Olympic, world, All-African, and defending
African 5000m champion Meseret Defar in the final of the women’s
5000m this evening.
The 23-year
old, who lost to Defar six weeks ago in the world indoor championships,
produced an outstanding sprint finish to take victory in 15:49.31
with Defar (15:50.181) beating Kenyan Grace Momanyi (15:50.188)
to the silver medal in windy racing conditions at the Addis Ababa
stadium.
The Ethiopian
trio of Meseret Defar, Meselech Melkamu, and national champion
Belaynesh Fekadu were the favorites to repeat the cleansweep
of medals achieved by their male compatriots yesterday in the
men's 10000m. But that feat was always going to be difficult
given that Kenya had a stronger challenge in their ranks in the
shape of their national cross country champion Grace Momanyi
and world junior 3000m champion Veronica Nyaruai.
Defar led three
of compatriots into an early lead and threatened to do what Gebremariam
started yesterday in the men's race. But the Ethiopian trio was
quickly closed down by Momanyi and co. who were desperate to
hold despite the Ethiopian resurgence.
The three Ethiopians
and three Kenyans moved ahead of the rest of the pack with 10
laps of the contest left. Melkamu, Defar, and Fekadu also exchanged
the lead in a tumultous contest until Fekadu threatened a serious
break with two laps of the race left.
There are a
strong element of predictability when Defar moved ahead of the
field at the bell. However, she was quickly closed down by Melkamu
with 300m left. The duo sprinted side by side and entered the
home straight together, but Melkamu edged Defar with 50m left
to take a one-second victory. A struggling Defar entered the
finish line together with Momanyi and had to endure a few painful
minutes before discovering that she had done enough to win silver.
Both runners were timed 15:50.19, but Defar took silver by virtue
of six-thousandths of a second.
"This was
one of the biggest races I have run because I have never beaten
Defar before," said an escatic Melkamu. "I thought
I was going to be second, but I have trained hard since she beat
me in the World indoors and beating Defar in my own country gives
me great pride."
"I was
ill the whole day and I just competed because I made a promise
to my people," said Defar who was holding her stomach in
agony at the end of seven-and-half laps of a tightly-fought contest.
