Tirunesh Dibaba

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba nicknamed the “Baby Faced Destroyer”, has indeed destroyed the old women’s 15km world record.

The new mark is 46min 28sec, bettering the old record of 46:55 which was set by Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi in Marugame on February 5, 2006 by a whopping 27 seconds.

The double Olympic champion in the 5,000m and 10,000m Tirunesh Dibaba set the timing at the 26th edition of the Zevenheuvelenloop 15Km in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Dibaba was quoted, “Although I trained a lot together with my husband for this race, a roadrace is something different. I did not know what I could expect. Therefore I was not that fast in the beginning. I loved the course and I was feeling fine. After 10 kilometres I pressed the pace and in the final three kilometres it felt like flying. It feels good as you hear after the finish that your husband also has won.”

Aside from holding the world record at 5km, she now holds the 15km record too.

In the men’s event, Ethiopia’s Sileshi Sihine won a sprint finish in 42:14 ahead of Uganda’s Nicholas Kiprono.

Note: Video below has no audio

Results (With Splits)

1. Tirunesh Dibaba 15:58-31:23-46:28

2. Bezunesh Bekele 16:11-32:04-47:48

3. Tetyana Holovchenko 16:55-33:53-50:33

4. Ilse Pol 17:03-34:01-51:13

5. Merel de Knegt 17:24-34:40-51:54

6. Agnes Kiprotich 17:10- 34:40-52:09

7. Corine Spaan 17:25-35:15-52:57