Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba won her second gold medal at the Beijing Olympics as she took the Women's 5,000 Meters gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games here on Friday.
Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse took the silver in 15:42.74 and another Ethiopian Meseret Defar, the defending champion, won the bronze in 15:44.12.
Tactical women's 5,000m
In a race that took conservative pacing to new levels in the opening laps, Olympic Trials champion Kara Goucher (Portland, Ore.), 10,000m bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan (Pittsboro, N.C.) and three-time Olympian Jen Rhines (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) put on their punching gloves and competed in a tactical and crowded women's 5,000m final.
Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey led the entire field through 800m in approximately 2:54. The first kilometer was passed in 3:49, followed by a brief pace increase that led to 2 km in 6:45.4. But they slowed again. With three laps to go, steeplechase gold medalist Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia picked up the pace, with 10,000m gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia in tow. With two laps left, Abeylegesse began to speed up in earnest, throwing in a 64-second lap, and with one left, the sprint was on. At the finish, it was Dibaba winning her second gold of the Games in 15:41.40, with Abeylegesse second in 15:42.74 and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia third in 15:44.12. Goucher ended ninth in 15:49.39, with Flanagan 10th in 15:50.80. Rhines was 14th in 16:34.63.
In 4x400m relay qualifying, the USA women's team of Mary Wineberg (Cincinnati, Ohio), Monique Henderson (Chula Vista, Calif.), Natasha Hastings (Clermont, Fla.) and Sanya Richards (Austin, Texas) ran 3:22.45 to win heat 2 and advance to Saturday's final. The men's team of 400m bronze medalist David Neville (Valencia, Calif.), 400m hurdles silver medalist Kerron Clement (Los Angeles), Reggie Witherspoon (Baltimore, Md.) and 400m hurdles gold medalist Angelo Taylor (Decatur, Ga.) won heat 1 in 2:59.98 to advance.
Another WR for Jamaica
Women's 5,000m final quotes from the US Team
Kara Goucher (Portland, Ore.): "I have a lot of work to do. The pace was slow, but they're amazing athletes. I maintained my composure. I know this sounds crazy, but I think I could have won that on the right night. I still have so much improvement left."
Shalane Flanagan (Pittsboro, N.C.): "The Ethiopians and Kenyans like to play around with the pace. I just had to deal with it, but my legs were tired and it was hard to change gears and just drop it like that. I tried to ease into every move because I knew that lactic acid was going to kick in if I went too hard. So when they made a move with three laps to go, I couldn't get there fast enough and I think it cost me two or three spots."
Jen Rhines (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.):
"There was nothing I could do out there. I hurt my foot on Tuesday. I've been getting treatment and our medical staff has been taking great care of me. I couldn't run normally. From the first move, I saw it, but I couldn't go. It's been my goal since the last Olympics to come in and run in a final. I accomplished that. Everything was perfect except for hurting my foot."
