Genzebe Dibaba ran an 8:16.60 earlier today (Thursday) to break the women's indoor 3,000 meter world record by over seven seconds; five days earlier, she ran 3:55.17 for the new indoor 1,500 meter world record by over three seconds, letsrun.com reported. She ran her most recent race at an International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) meet in Stockholm.

The 22 year-old (who turns 23 on Saturday) Ethiopian now owns one more world record than her older sister, Turinesh Dibaba, namesake of the 5,000 meter world mark and winner of the 10,000 meters at the most recent Olympics and World Outdoor Championships. That relation is important, as letsrun pointed out in their "Week That Was" recap, for it justifies, to a degree, Dibaba's natural talent, and, by association, a natural, drug-free performance.

Of course, when you run track and field -- and break world records of distances less than two miles by unheard of margins like seven and three seconds -- you're rarely deemed 100 percent clean, such is the sport's history. Letsrun has been famously condemning of known drug cheats. Most recently, the website (quite possibly the best sports websites on the internet) conducted an informal poll asking site visitors whether they believed current American stars were doping or not (results pending). To Dababa's credit, they believed she may have run the fastest clean 1,500 meter of all time (her 3:55 is only good for 11th best ever when considering outdoor marks, which were mostly achieved in more drug-ridden times).

Based simply on the seven second improvement from the old world record, Dibaba's 3,000 meter run was more impressive than her 1,500 meter run (while keeping in mind a three second improvement at 1,500 is faster than at 3,000). Based on Jack Daniels' legendary V Dot chart, her 8:16 is just over one spot ahead of the 3:55, and converts to a 3:52 1,500 (two seconds back of the 1,500 meter outdoor world record).

Back in my division III cross country/track days, a few teammates and I used to pride ourselves on running times comparable to elite professional women. Well, besides one of my teammates (who won something like eight national championships between cross country and track), we'd have all been forced to bow considerably before Dibaba's run, especially so in the 3,000.

Her 8:16, which converts to a 14:23 5,000 meters based on Daniels' charts, wouldn't have given her an automatic qualifying time for DIII Indoor Nationals, but it would have met the provisional requirements and likely gotten her a spot, based on previoius year's results.