Osaka, Japan - Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia did it the hard way, providing a dramatic scenario in the successful defence of her 10,000m title, in the first track final of these 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka.

 

When four Ethiopians assumed the lead after two kilometres, it looked as if we were going to get a scenario like in the men’s race in Paris 2003. But just after 6000m, the 21-year-old Dibaba and colleague Mestawet Tufa were involved in a fall, which left Dibaba winded, adrift and rubbing her stomach, while Tufa had to stop and put a shoe back on.