10,000 metres, Women

Run as a final only, this was less of a race than a time trial for Ethiopian Almaz Ayana. Kenyan Alice Aprot took the early lead and held it through 5,000 metres, passed in 14:46.81, a PR for her for the shorter distance, but Ayana was right behind her in 14:47.1. They remained like that through 13 laps when Ayana decided to start her time trial, running the next lap in 66.5. Only Vivian Cheruiyot was anywhere near her at the end of the lap.

Ayana continued, running metronomic laps to the finish, shattering the world record by running 29:17.45. The previous official world record was 29:31.78 by China’s Wang Junxia but that mark was considered almost certainly performance-aided, and most track stat freaks felt the true world best was the 29:53.80 set by Meselech Melkamu in 2009. Thus, Ayana’s time was over 36 seconds faster than that mark. She ran the second 5K in 14:30.4, her last 3,000 in 8:47.5, and the final four laps in 4:41.5.

Behind Ayana, the top 13 runners were pulled to PRs and there were multiple national records set. Cheruiyot finished in 29:32.53, followed by Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba in 29:42.56, with Aprot missing the podium with 29:53.51. The 2-4 finishers were thus also under what was considered the legitimate world record. American Molly Huddle finished sixth in a national record 30:13.17, as did Sweden’s Sarah Lahti in 12th with 31:28.43, Burundi’s Diane Nukuri-Johnson in 13th with 31:28.69, and Greece’s Alexia Pappas in 17th in 31:36.16.