Dibaba's date with history

Tirunesh Dibaba, even at only 19 years old, has already created so much athletics history. But the Ethiopian added another chapter tonight, when she became the first woman to complete the 5,000 and 10,000 metres double at the World Championships.

She also led home the first cleansweep of the first four places in a women's even at the Worlds (following the 200 metres "foursweep" by the American men sprinters on Thursday), as she retained the title she had won in Paris two years ago,

In a cat-and-mouse type of race, in which the Chinese runners Yingjie Sun and Huina Xing, the Olympic 10,000m champion, played their part, Dibaba took decisive charge shortly at the bell, and out-strengthed her team mate, Olympic gold medallist Meseret Defar, who came to a jog just before the finishing line, as all her efforts to pass Dibaba came to nought.

Off her 58.19sec last 400, including a 28.04sec last 200, Dibaba clocked a championship record 14min 38.59sec, with Defar given 14:39.54. As she had done in the 10,000m final a week earlier, Dibaba's older sister, Ejagayou, added to the bulging family trophy cabinet with the bronze in 14:42.47. The fourth Ethiopian, Meselech Melkamu, was timed at 14:43.47, as she outkicked Xing down the home straight.

The race began predictably enough, with the Belarus, Olga Kravtsova, taking on the early pacemaking. But when the first kilometre took 3:02.53, this was clearly not good enough for the Chinese, and Xing's teammate rushed wide of the group down the home straight to set a more demanding pace, clicking out laps of 67sec, 68.09 and 69.95sec.

By 3km, though, Sun was fading, and Dibaba now headed a queue of Ethiopians at the front of a leading group numbered just seven. With a couple of laps remaining, Dibaba stepped wide, and the pace slowed to a dawdle until Isabella Ochichi, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, reluctantly moved forward.

As distance doubles go, this track achievement is perhaps even more impressive than the World Cross Country double she achieved in France in March.

What is it about distance runners, when drawn in the second of two heats, with seven final places on offer for fastest losers, and with the knowledge that a reasonable finishing time will guarantee them a place on the greater stage, that they do not attempt to exploit the opportunity and take on the pace?

Thus it was, with the second of tonight's women's 5,000 metres heats, that we witnessed some pedestrian pace in the early stages, scorning the chance of a place in the final.

In the first heat, Olga Kravtsova, of Belarus, had been the architect of their downfall. The recent European Cup B league-winner cranked out the laps in her race at near-even 3min per kilometre pace.

Despite taking a spectacular mid-race tumble, the 24-year-old ensured that she and eight others from her heat went through - and she even set a national record, as did Zakia Mrisho Mohamed, of Tanzania, after Jo Pavey, of Britain, had taken on the initiative into the final two laps to come home in third behind two of the medal favourites, defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba (14min 50.98sec), and her Ethiopian team mate, Meselech Melkamu (14:51.49).

The slower second heat saw the first four finishers all clock between 15:13.52 and 15:14.63, with Susanne Wigene, of Norway, and Kenya's Olympic silver medallist Isabella Ochichi getting fastest loser final places in a race won by Olympic champion Meseret Defar and Ejegayehu Dibaba.