Meseret Defar of Ethiopia fell short in her attempt to set the world record in the women’s 5,000 meters on Sunday in the Prefontaine Classic, clocking 14 minutes, 38.73 seconds. She was chasing the mark of 14 minutes, 11.15 seconds run by compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba on Friday in Oslo. Dibaba herself broke Defar’s record of 14:16.63.

Although Defar fell off the pace in the first half of the race, she shattered the Hayward Field record of 15:06.53 set in 1985 by Mary Slaney. It was the third-fastest women’s 5,000 on American soil.

More later today on http://www.registerguard/com, and in Monday’s print edition of The Register-Guard.

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