SPECTACULAR SOLO 5000M FOR VIVIAN CHERUIYOT IN STOCKHOLM
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot ran the fourth-fastest 5000m of all-time at the DN Galan Meeting tonight in Stockholm, the 11th stop of the 2011 Samsung Diamond League.

Cheruiyot, the reigning world 5000m champion, was the only athlete to follow closely behind the pacemaker Olga Golovkina when the Russian passed through 2000m in 5:47.19.  Circling the track alone while a classy field fell farther and farther behind, Cheruiyot clipped through 3000m in 8:38.67 and 4000m in 11:31.22.  Accelerating in the final lap, Cheruiyot managed to run the final kilometer in 2:49.65 to clock 14:20.87, the fastest time recorded in the world in three years.  Cheruiyot now owns the #4 and #5 marks at the distance, and remains the third-fastest woman ever behind Ethiopians Tirunesh Dibaba (14:11.15) and Meseret Defar (14:12.88).

Behind Cheruiyot, Kenyans Sally Kipyego (14:43.87) and Silvia Kibet (14:45.31) finished second and third, respectively.  American Shalane Flanagan finished fourth in 14:46.80, just two seconds outside of Molly Huddle's USA record.  Her American compatriot, Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy Boulet, set a personal best of 15:14.25 in tenth place.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Kenya's Silas Kiplagat won his third Diamond League race of the season in 3:33.94 over Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop, who came from fourth place to second in the final 20 meters.  Olympic bronze medalist Nick Willis held on for third (3:34.49).

Jamaica's Kenia Sinclair dominated the women's 800m, clocking a season's best 1:58.21 to win by one and one-half seconds over Morocco's Malika Akkaoui.  Kenya's Paul Kipsiele Koech got an easy win in the men's steeplechase, running away from Uganda's Benjamin Kiplagat over the final two laps to win in 8:05.92.  Koech, who was not selected for the Kenyan team for the IAAF World Championships, remains the Diamond League leader in that discipline with 13 points.

Although Usain Bolt's participation in the meet drew the most fan interest, his winning mark of 20.03 in the 200m wasn't the best men's performance on the night (Cheruiyot's was the best women's).  Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen threw the javelin a world-leading 88.43 meters, while Australia's Mitchell Watt leapt 8.54m in the long jump, an area record.