From David MontiThe gently banked 200m indoor track at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston has been good to Tirunesh Dibaba.
In 2004, in her first appearance at the the Reebok Boston Indoor Games there, she was narrowly defeated by Meseret Defar in the 5000m, 14:53.14 to 14:53.99. She came back the following year to set a world indoor 5000m record of 14:32.93. She came close to that time a year later, in 2006, clocking 14:35.46. In 2007, she set yet another world indoor 5000m record there with a sparkling 14:27.42, then dropped down to the 3000m in 2008, running an indoor personal best of 8:33.37.
Dibaba skipped the meet in 2009, but will be back in 2010, organizers said earlier this week, ostensibly to take back her 5000m world indoor record which Defar snatched in Stockholm last February (14:24.37).
Just 24 years-old, Dibaba already has three Olympic medals (two gold), eight world titles, and holds the 5000m world record (14:11.15). She just set a pending world 15 km record on the roads last month in Nijmegen, Netherlands (46:28), so she's already in good form in advance of the 2010 indoor season.
The Reebok Boston Indoor Games, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 6, has become America's top invitational indoor meeting. More information, including how to buy tickets, is available at www.BostonIndoorGames.com.
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