Tirunesh Dibaba continues to cement her reputation

With a seemingly effortless performance, Tirunesh Dibaba earned her fifth IAAF World Championships gold medal at the Luzhniki Stadium, adding to her already enviable curriculum vitae.

It all began 10 years ago while she was still a bright eyed 18-year-old as she was the surprise winner of 5000m gold medal in Paris. Of course she also took home both the 5000m and 10,000m gold medals from the Beijing Olympics and then the London 2012 Olympic Games 10,000m gold.

Now she is 28 and her legend is cemented as one of the world’s greatest ever distance runners, but her resolve remains the same despite her success.

With younger athletes appearing on the international scene each year, the challenge to remain at the top grows but Dibaba, whose well-known nickname is ‘The Baby Faced Destroyer’, claimed she didn’t feel any of that in the humid Moscow air on Sunday night.

“No I wasn’t anxious at all,” she said after the race. “I have competed at the World Championships many times and this is my fifth gold.”

Scattered amongst the crowd were many Ethiopian flags and each time she passed them there were loud, rousing, cheers. Read more