Track Roundup : Kristiansen Shatters Budd’s 5,000-Meter Mark

Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway smashed Zola Budd’s world 5,000-meter record by more than 10 seconds Tuesday at Stockholm, giving her the fastest times ever in all three long-distance races in women’s track.

Kristiansen, running alone most of the race, was timed in 14 minutes 37.33 seconds in chilly and rainy conditions.

“The weather was not a factor,” she said. “And I wasn’t really tired towards the end.”

It was the 66th world record broken at Olympic Stadium, which was built for the 1912 Summer Games. Bislett Stadium in Oslo, with 46 world records, is the only other site that comes close in that category.

The South African-born Budd, who competes for Britain, set the previous world record for 5,000 meters of 14:48.07 on Aug. 26, 1985, at Crystal Palace in London. Kristiansen, who held the record before that, was the runner-up in that race.

Kristiansen, 30, also has the fastest women’s marathon time ever--there are no official world records--and owns the world 10,000-meter mark. She had predicted a time between 14.35 and 14.40 for Tuesday’s race.

Her race plan called for 71-second laps, and she matched it lap-for-lap. Her split times were equal compared with Budd’s until the 2,000-meter mark, when she was one second faster.

She made her big move near the midway point, when pacesetter Elly van Hulst of the Netherlands dropped out. From then on, Kristiansen steadily improved the pace.

At 3,000 meters, she was almost five seconds faster, and at 4,400 meters, she had run nine seconds faster than Budd did a year ago.

“But I thought it was difficult to keep the pace because I didn’t get any lap times. It was hard to hear them on the public address system,” Kristiansen said.

A month ago, when Kristiansen shattered the world 10,000-meter record in her hometown of Oslo, she was helped by large signs showing her times for every lap around Bislett Stadium.

Less than 1,000 fans attended Tuesday’s meet, which did not feature any other international track stars.

Dorthe Rasmussen of Denmark finished second in 16:02.20, and Sissel Grottenberg of Norway was third in 16:08.41. Only four women completed the race.

At a meet between Britain and the Commonwealth, in Gateshead, England, Scotland’s Allan Wells, an Olympic champion without a major victory in four years, scored a surprising sweep of the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, upsetting Canadian sensation Ben Johnson.

Wells, the 100-meter champion in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, combined a good start and a strong finish for a time of 10.40 into a head wind, beating British teammate Lincoln Asquith, second in 10.50.

Desai Williams of Canada finished third in 10.52, with Johnson, the Commonwealth Games 100 gold medalist in 10.07, fourth in 10.53.

About an hour later, Wells charged from behind to win the 200 in 20.76, with Atlee Mahorn of Canada, the Commonwealth champion, second in 20.80.

At the same meet, Zola Budd suffered a surprising setback in the women’s 2,000.

After a sizzling start, Budd faded to fourth, behind Canadian Debbie Bowker’s winning time of 5:39.96.

Bowker, a Commonwealth Games silver medalist, passed Budd at the head of the backstretch and won by 10 meters over Christine Benning of Britain. Liz Lynch of Scotland, the Commonwealth 10,000 gold medalist, nipped Budd for third.

The Gateshead meet was Budd’s first major outing since finishing third in the 2,000 to world-record setting Maricica Puica of Romania at London last month.

Five years after becoming the first man to run the 110-meter hurdles in less than 13 seconds, world record-holder Renaldo Nehemiah, who swapped amateur athletics for professional football, makes his track comeback today at Viareggio, Italy.

Nehemiah’s record of 12.93 seconds has never been threatened in his four-year enforced absence, and no other hurdler has broken the 13-second mark.