Q & A #30 Who Hold the Women's Mile WR

Women’s mile: Dibaba gets another world record

For the third consecutive year, Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba came to the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm and left with a world record. After taking down marks in the 3000 (8:16.60 in 2014) and 5000 (14:18.86 in 2015), Dibaba smashed Doina Melinte’s 26-year-old world record of 4:17.14 in the indoor mile, running 4:13.31 on Wednesday night. Dibaba’s is the second-fastest mile ever by a woman, indoors or out, trailing only Svetlana Masterkova’s outdoor record of 4:12.56 from 1996.

Rabbit Joanna Jozwik hit 409 meters in 63.59 seconds with Dibaba close behind, and by 609 meters (1:34.98), those two had separated from the pack. One lap later, Jozwik dropped out (Dibaba came through 809 in 2:06.69) and it was Dibaba against the clock. Though she slowed to 32.14 seconds from 809 to 1009 (her slowest lap of the race), she picked it up each lap from there to the finish, going 31.93-31.54-31.00 to close out the world record. Fellow Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay was second in a very respectable 4:24.98, but it was all Dibaba tonight.