World lead and course record for Tirunesh Dibaba over 10km in Manchester

Eight months after her impressive Half Marathon victory in Newcastle, Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba put in another commanding performance on British roads and won the Bupa Great Manchester Run over 10km with a world-leading time of 30:49 on Sunday (26).

Into the bargain, the three-time Olympic champion also bagged a course record at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race, and a personal best.

Dibaba is now the 11th fastest runner ever at the distance but there is surely much more to come from her as she started the race slowly, in her own words ‘warming up’ during the first half of the race.

During the first kilometre, in perfect weather conditions with gentle sunshine and hardly any wind, the Ethiopian stayed just behind her rivals in the leading pack but then soon took off on her own.

“I started slow because there was a slight wind at first and I felt I need to warm-up,” explained Diabab, who had missed her planned Marathon debut in London because of a shin injury. “It is fine now, I had no problems,” she added, confirming the obvious to anyone who watched the race.

Passing the 5km mark in 15:40, Dibaba was already 38 seconds ahead of the chasing group before she started going through the gears

She covered the second half of the race in a spectacular 15:09, a pace good enough to one day potentially break Paula Radcliffe’s World record of 30:21. Read more