ATHLETICS: Eloise Wellings has produced the best performance by an Australian distance runner at the world athletics championships, finishing 10th in the women's 5000m.

The leading African runners setting a cracking early pace in Sunday's final, with Ethiopian Almaz Ayana breaking away later on to claim a commanding victory in 14 minutes 26.83 seconds.

Senbere Teferi and 1500m champion Genzebe Dibaba completed a medal sweep for Ethiopia, with Kenyan runners filling the next four placings.

Dibaba was chasing the first 1500m/5000m double by a woman at world or Olympic level.

The 32-year-old Wellings' time of 15:09.62 was her quickest of 2015.

"It was weird - it was a bit like running a Diamond League again," said Wellings.

"I'm happy with it, happy with 15:09.

"That was the goal here, to get into the top 10, but I'm just a bit disappointed with my last lap.

"You always try and get the girls who are running in front of you, but I am happy with the race."

Wellings produced a solid tactical race and was pleased not to be sucked in when the pace was at its hottest early on.

"It's really hard to watch them get ahead like that but you have to trust that it will slow down and a couple of the girls came back to us," she said.

"I know that's definitely the way for me to run races - instead of trying to burn up at the front and blowing up, it's always better to be passing people at the end."

Australian Brandon Starc was unable to replicate his record-breaking performance from the qualifying round in the men's high jump final.

Starc finished 12th with a best clearance of 2.25m - six centimetres less than his personal best set on Friday.

Canada's Derek Drouin won gold in a jump-off after a first-time clearance at 2.34m.

Bohdan Bondarenko from Ukraine and China's Guowei Zhang both claimed silver medals.

AAP