SABADELL, Spain — Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba ran the fastest ever women’s 2,000 meters at the indoor Miting Internacional de Catalunya meeting in Sabadell, Spain Tuesday.
Her time of five minutes 23.75 seconds sliced almost seven seconds off the previous indoor world record of 5:30.53 set by Romania’s Gabriela Szabo in 1998.
The IAAF, athletics’ world governing body, said although the 2,000m is not an official indoor world record event, Dibaba’s performance was “an outright world record” as it was faster than the outdoor mark of 5:25.36 set by Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan.
The 25-year-old Dibaba, a three-time world indoor champion, now owns the fastest recorded times indoors for the 1500m, mile, 2,000m, 3,000m, two miles and 5,000m as well as the outdoor 1500m world record.
Carter to race this weekend
Embattled Jamaican sprinter Nesta Carter will return to the track this weekend in his first meeting since he was stripped of his Beijing Olympics gold medal after a retroactive test uncovered a banned substance in his sample.
Carter’s re-tested sample from 2008 was found to have traces of the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said last month.
Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team that included Usain Bolt was stripped of its gold medals. Last year in Rio, Bolt completed a ‘treble treble’ of Olympic gold medals in winning the 100, 200 and 4x100 titles at three successive Games.
Bolt has already returned his Beijing relay medal.
Carter has said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The 31-year-old Carter, who has not raced competitively for 17 months due to injury and then because he was notified of the positive test, will run at the Western Relays in Montego Bay, his manager Bruce James said.
Carter has not been banned by world governing body the International Association of athletics Federations (IAAF) and correspondence between Jamaican athletics authorities and the IAAF seen by Reuters confirmed he would be clear to run until his appeal had been heard.
“Having consulted the IAAF Medical and Anti-Doping Department, it appears that Mr. Carter is not currently provisionally suspended,” IAAF chief executive Olivier Gers wrote in a letter in response to a query by Jamaican athletics President Warren Blake.
“He is eligible to compete in athletics competition pending the CAS proceedings.”
Carter has until Feb. 15 to file his appeal with CAS.
