Rose Davies buries Tokyo demons with win in 5000m national record time

The Newcastle runner won the women's 5000m final at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet on Sunday in a time of 14:41.65, bettering Jessica Hull's national mark of 14:43.80 from 2020.

It came about three weeks after Davies ran a personal best 14:47.86 at the Suzhou Diamond League to go under the Paris Olympics qualifying time of 14.52.

The run in Tokyo was her third time going under 15 minutes and has her on track for a strong showing at the July-August Paris Games. The track and field team is weeks away from being selected but Davies is so far the only Australian woman to set a qualifying time in the 5000m.

Westcott said the relief of meeting the Games standard last month was a key to Sunday's brilliant run.

"That was the mission and now I think the pressure has just come off a lot since then," Westcott said.

"Just being able to run with freedom. We believed there was a really good performance in her body and that was being shown by some of her amazing training and just her consistency over the past few years.

"Three years ago when Rose was desperately trying to run a qualifying time for Tokyo [Olympics], the qualifying then was 15.10 and she ran 15.08 in the Netherlands and was absolutely flat to the boards.

"And what a difference three years makes, because she said she didn't even realise she was running that quick the other night. She just looked at the clock and almost fell off her chair."

Davies was disappointed with 18^th in her heat of the 5000m at the 2021 Tokyo OIympics, and Westcott was thrilled to see her bounce back at the same venue.

"That was at the Olympic stadium where she walked off in tears three years ago, and she buried that hoodoo by running a meet record. What a way to do it," he said.

Her next target is the 3000m at the Oslo Diamond League meet on May 30.