MESERET Defar won back her Olympic 5000 metres title from Tirunesh Dibaba as Vivian Cheruiyot split the Ethiopians on the podium, while the women’s 1500m was won by a surprise contender. After a slow 4,600 metres, 2008 champion Dibaba led an all-African charge but faded in the finishing strait as Defar and Kenya’s Cheruiyot overtook her, the winning time 15:04.25.
Defar, who won the gold in Athens eight years ago, reacted with disbelief having been third-best to her podium buddies in recent seasons.
Dibaba could be forgiven for fading – she won the 10,000m title less than a week previously.
“It’s a great day for me. Since 2008, I have tried everything as I wasn’t able to win the Olympics,” Defar, the bronze medallist from Beijing, said.
“I have won two Olympic medals before and this is my third. I’m not sure I can do a fourth so this means a lot to me,” added the 28-year-old.
Jo Pavey finished a creditable seventh, just ahead of British team-mate Julia Bleasdale.
Again the GB pair were the highest-finishing non-Africans in the race, as they were in the 10,000m final earlier in the Games.
There was a less enthusiastic response as Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin, who served a two-year doping ban eight years ago, won a slow women’s 1,500m final by searing to a 58-second final lap to finish ahead of team-mate Gamze Bulut.
Ethiopoan-born Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain was third, with Russia’s Tatyana Tomashova fourth. It was easily Cakir’s biggest triumph, although she won the European Championship title this season.
The African and Russian favourites were left behind by the Turkish duo after getting their tactics wrong and allowing for a sprint finish – much like the men’s race, which was won by Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi.
Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey and Laura Weightman were also run out of it, finishing 10th and 11th respectively.
American Morgan Uceny, who fell in the 2011 world championship final, also hit the deck in London and exited in tears.
Russia’s Tatyana Lysenko, who watched the 2008 Olympics on TV while serving a two-year doping ban, won the women’s hammer gold with an Olympic record throw of 78.18 metres on Friday.
Lysenko, who won the world championship title last year, beat the old Olympic record of 76.34 set by Askana Miankova in Beijing with her first throw of the night, 77.56m, then improved it with her fifth.
Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland took silver with 77.60 and German world record-holder Betty Heidler claimed a controversial bronze with 77.13 after having her fifth throw remeasured.
China’s Zhang Wenxiu, who got bronze in Beijing, thought she had finished third again but was then relegated to fourth. Chinese officials were unhappy with the decision and have launched an appeal.(Eurosport)