Almaz Ayana, photo by PhotoRun.net
RunBlogRun comments: This race reminded me of the men’s 10,000m in Edmonton in 2001. Haile Gebrselassie had run a 3,000m that season and kept all behind him until Charles Kamathi went by with 200m to go.
Truth is, Almaz Ayana was beatable here and she knew it. Her long run for home, aka a 5000m to 8000m, ala Carles Lopes in Montreal 1976, was stunning. Ayana is long legs and a big heart.
Ayana took off after the 3k was hit in 9:59, and ran 2:48-2:49 for the last seven kilometers, winning in 30:16.32 WL. In a fantastic kick, the one and only Tirunesh Dibaba took silver, running near 61 seconds for the last lap, running 31:02.69! Dibaba won her first WC medal, a gold in 2003, in the 5,000m. There have been many since!
In third, Agnes Tirup, KEN, ran 31:03.50, to run a PB!
Special thanks to the The Shoe Addicts Adam Johnson-Eder and Mike Deering (an Algernon Felice), on recording each and every session, and their diligence in doing the pressers for ten straight days.
