World 10,000m Silver medallist Letesenbet Gidey ran the fourth fastest time in the world at the ISTAF Meeting, a World Athletics’ Continental Tour Silver meeting held on Sunday (03) in Olympic Stadium, Berlin.
The 25 year-old was on a mission to attack Faith Kipyegon’s World 5000m record of 14:05.20 that she lost to her earlier this year. Gidey was aided by the wavelights technology and the World 3000m steeple chase record holder Beatrice Chepkoech, who took her through the 2k and 3k in 5:40.96 and 8:30.16 respectively and dropping off to allow Gidey to fight solo for the reminder 2k.
The world half marathon record holder reached 4,000m in 11:18.18 with the record still within reach, but her next lap of 70.11 was some seconds slower and left her with a mountain to climb. She picked up the pace again but the record was then out of reach, crossing the finish line a Meet Record time of 14:08.79, erasing the old mark of 22 years of 14:06.62 set by Russia’s Olga Yegorova.
“The race was good, I felt really good. The pace from Beatrice Chepkoech was perfect. But today it was a little bit windy, so it was very hard at the end. Because of this wind I could not run a better time,” said Gidey.
The Tokyo 10,000m Olympic bronze medallist was followed by the 2021 World U20 1500m Bronze medallist, Winnie Jemutai in second place in a new personal best of 14:56.99 with the 2019 African U20 Silver medallist, Edinah Jebitok wrapping up the podium three finishes in a life time best of 15:01.97.
“It has been the athletics festival, we’ve been hoping for. We saw incredible performances by the athletes and many small and great stories could be told. That’s what athletics stands for,“ said Meeting Director Martin Seeber.
These are Gideys three fastest times in the world 14:06.62 (October 7th, 2020 in Valencia), 14:07.94 (June 9th, 2023, Paris), 14:08.79 (Sep 3rd, 2023Berlin)
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