Dubai - Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia takes women's long distance running to new level
Published: Fri 12 Aug 2016, 7:40 PM
Updated: Fri 12 Aug 2016, 9:48 PM
Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia took women's long distance running to a new level at the Rio Olympics on Friday evening, UAE time
The tiny Ethiopian ace, the favourite to win the event, set a brutal pace after she took over the lead after twelve and a half laps, and since then, maintained an average speed of 61-65 seconds for the rest of the race to treat the handful of spectators who braved the wet weather, to the greatest women's 10,000m race in history.
"We knew she would be good, but never, never dared to think she would be this good," said a commentator just after the women's 10,000m when Almaz smashed 14 seconds off the WR to finish in 29 minutes and 17.45 seconds. The WR till Friday stood in favour of China's Wang Junxia, set in Beijing in 1993.
Kenya's Vivian Cheriot improved on the bronze medal she won in London, finishing in silver position at 29:32.53, and the defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) crossed the line with a personal best of 29:42:56 for the bronze medal in the first medal event of the Rio athletics programme.
During the incredible race where adjectives and superlatives went of out stock to describe it, the leading bunch were in sight of the world record as early as after the eighth lap, and they lapped the tailenders three times!
The UAE's Alia Saeed Mohammed, the Asian champion, finished 24th in a race where thirty seven runners finished the event. She was in the third chasing pack consisting of over 12 runners for most of the race.
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