Daba shines in 5,000m at Tyson indoor meeting

FAYETTEVILLE: Ethiopia’s Bekana Daba notched a world-leading time of 13min 17.89sec to win the 5,000m at the Tyson Invitational indoor athletics meeting Friday, becoming the ninth-fastest performer of all-time.

Galen Rupp finished second in an American record 13:18.12. Rupp became the 10th-fastest performer ever, and broke the previous American record of 13:20.55, which was was set by Doug Padilla in 1982, four years before Rupp was born. The American had taken the lead with two and a half laps left, but couldn’t hold it as Daba moved to the front with one lap remaining. Bianca Knight, the 2008 US collegiate indoor champion, won the women’s 200m in a world-leading time of 22.88sec.

Jamaica’s Nickeshsa Anderson was second in 23.60 and 2008 Olympic 4x400m gold medalist Natasha Hastings was third in 23.70. American Jennifer Stuczynski won the women’s pole vault with a clearance of 4.63m, but was unable to improve on the 4.82m American record she notched at the Boston Indoor Games last weekend. “I was hoping to build off last week’s record mark and set another one here in Arkansas, but it just didn’t happen,” she said. afp