NEW YORK, June 3 - Meseret Defar of Ethiopia set a world record in the women's 5,000 metres on Saturday with a time of 14 minutes 24.53 seconds at New York's grand prix athletics meeting at Icahn Stadium.

Defar, the Olympic champion, broke the previous record time of 14:24.68 set by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey in 2004.