Posted: June 15, 2009  :

(RRW) Athletics: Melkamu Breaks 30-Minute Barrier In Utrecht

From David Monti © 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu, 24, became only the fourth woman in history to break the 30-minute barrier for 10,000m, clocking 29:53.80 in Utrecht, Netherlands tonight. Her mark was the second fastest of all-time and broke Tirunesh Dibaba's national record of 29:54.66 achieved at the Beijing Olympics last August. The women's 10,000m world record remains 29:31.78 by China's Wang Junxia set in Beijing in 1993. Kenya's Florence Kiplagat finished second in the race in 30:11 (unofficial). Assuming her mark is made official, she will be the new Kenyan record holder for the distance, displacing Linet Masai who ran 30:26.50 at last August's Olympic Games. NOTE: Detailed results will be published in tomorrow's Race Results Weekly --Ed. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest