Records give sleepy season a timely jolt

Athletics' sleepy season woke up prematurely and with a considerable jolt over the weekend. In a wave of unseasonal runs, two world records were smashed, the second fastest ever marathon was run in Tokyo and two Irish records also fell to Mark Carroll and Peter Coughlan.

American Maurice Greene also ran one of the fastest ever times in Los Angeles over 50m indoors, equalling Canadian Donovan Bailey's 5.56-second world mark set three years ago in Reno, Nevada.

Yesterday, however, the men's 5000m indoor world record fell to Ethiopia's astounding Haile Gebrselassie, who broke his 15th world mark with another incredible solo run in the BUPA Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham.

Following on from Romanian Gabriela Szabo, who shattered Liz McColgan's seven-year-old record over the same distance indoors in the women's race in Dortmund just 24 hours earlier, Olympic champion Gebrselassie sliced over a second off the previous best 5000m time.

Clocking 12:50:38 seconds, and cheered by nearly 1,000 of his countrymen and women, Gebrselassie had to run the last 10 laps - almost half the race distance - on his own and at one stage it looked as though he would just miss out on the time of 12:51:48 set by fierce rival Daniel Komen last year.

But he produced a blistering finish to claim the £50,000 bonus, even surviving having to run outside some back markers on the last bend.

"I didn't think I was going to get it and I was very disappointed those people didn't move, they killed almost a second," said Gebrselassie, who broke the 2,000m record at the same venue last year.

"They seemed to be running in three lanes and I was scared I wasn't going to do it. It's a very difficult record, it feels like you're running 10,000m. It will be difficult to break in the future but I'll have another go. It's becoming a drama because every time I come here I have to break a world record," he added.

Szabo shaved nearly 16 seconds of McColgan's previous best of 15:03.17 seconds set in Birmingham in 1992, coming home in 14:47.36 seconds. Breaking the 15 minute barrier would itself have been considered exceptional but with second-placed Tegla Laroupe finishing in 14:51.69 in the second fastest time ever recorded, the Dortmund crowd was well rewarded by two of Sonia O'Sullivan's biggest rivals.

"I was certain that I could make it," said Szabo, who was encouraged by a crowd of 4,500 in the RuhrValley town. Her manager Jos Hermens, promising a mouth watering World Championships in Japan next month, subsequently said that his runner could go even faster.

It was on the heels of Gebrselassie in the 5000m that European bronze medallist Mark Carroll claimed the Irish indoor record of 13:31.93 seconds, almost three seconds faster than John Treacy's 13:34.96 mark set in New York in 1982. Although lapped by the Ethiopian winner, Carroll added to Crusaders hurdler Peter Coughlan's national record set in the Virginia Tech. Invitational on Saturday.

Coughlan, now under the wing of Loren Seagrave, the coach of Donovan Bailey and Susan Smith broke the 60m hurdles record, finishing second in the race. The Irishman's time of 7.67 seconds bettered the long standing 7.69 second mark of TJ Kearns and qualifies the Dubliner for the world indoor championships in Japan.

Yesterday, South Africa's Sydney Olympic hopeful Gert Thys beat his own personal best by more than one minute for an easy victory in the Tokyo international men's marathon, running 2:06.33, the second fastest time in the world.

The 27-year-old Thys, who spurted around the 30-kilometre mark in a second group before overtaking front-runner Kenichi Takahashi of Japan to clock his time. The South African's mark is less than 30 seconds off that of Rionaldo da Costa of Brazil, who holds the world record of 2:06:05, set in Berlin in September last season.