Kimberley Smith carved nine seconds off her New Zealand national 5000m record after running 14m 56.58s in Brussels, Belgium last evening.

Smith was competing in the IAAF Golden League Van Damme memorial meeting and finished 10th in the star studded field.

The world Universities 5000m champion previously held the record with 15m 5.68s set in Stockholm a year ago.

The race was won by world 10,000m and twice world 5000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia in 14m 30.63s.

Nick Willis was also 10th, recording 3m 35.16s in the 1500m. Mehdi Baala of France won in 3m 32.01s.

Willis set a New Zealand national record of 3m 32.38s at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Paris early last month.

Meanwhile in Copenhagen, Denmark Jason Stewart finished fifth over 800m in 1m 48.76s and Paul Hamblyn seventh in 1m 49.75s. Earlier in the week Stewart was seventh in the 800m in 1m 48.12s, at the Malmo Al-Galan meeting in Sweden, and Hamblyn was second in the 1500m in 3m 45.33s.

source Athletics New Zealand