Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba broke the African women’s 1500m record of 3:54.11 at the Míting Internacional d’Atletisme Centenari de la Federació Catalana held in Barcelona’s Estadi Joan Serrahima stadium on Wesdnesday.
The Ethiopian distance running star, who smashed her lifetime best over 5000m in 14:15.41 when winning at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday, produced the fastest time over the distance since 1997 and moved up to ninth on the world all-time list.
Genzebe Dibaba also improved on the Spanish all-comers’ record of 3:55.30, which had stood to Algeria’s Hassiba Boulmerka since she won at the 1992 Olympics in the same city.
RECORD ALERT: Take a bow #GenzebeDibaba 👉🏽 3:54.11 new #African women’s 1500m record in #Barcelona today, 9th all-time. #Ethiopia #Athletics
— Athletics Africa (@athleticsafrica) July 8, 2015
Djibouti’s world bronze medallist Ayanleh Souleiman won the men’s 800m in a personal best of 1:43.08 ahead of World youth 1500m champion Robert Biwott, second in a PB of 1:43.58, and Musaeb Balla who set a Qatari record of 1:43.82 in third.
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