Almaz Ayana smashes 23-year-old world record to win gold

Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana has made history by breaking the 23-year-old 10,000 meter world record to win gold at the Rio Olympics.

Running in only her second 10,000m race on the track, the 24-year-old ran away from the field with over 2000 meters left, displaying a masterclass in distance running to set a new world record of 29:17:45, breaking Wang Junxia’s 1993 best by almost 14 seconds.

Prior to the race, only five women had ever run the distance in under 30 minutes, and no female have achieved the milestone in seven years.

Ayana’s extraordinary performance didn’t just benefited her; it also resulted in an array of other athletes smashing national and personal records. Silver medalist Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot, for instance, ran 29:32:53 to break the Kenyan record, while triple Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba ran a personal best of 29:42:56 to secure a bronze.

Meanwhile, America’s Molly Huddle ran 30:13:17 to set a new North American record, breaking the previous best by almost 10 seconds. The first 13 finishers in the race all broke their personal best times.

Incredibly, the seven fastest finishers in the race ran quicker that the time that clinch the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Ayana’s historic run has put to an end the highly controversial world record mark of Junxia, the Chinese runner who earlier this year admitted that she was part of a state-sponsored doping ring. It was reported that she and other athletes wrote the letter in 1995 but it wasn’t made public knowledge until this year. Following the development, many have disputed the validity of her record.

Here’s how the women’s 10,000 meter broke down: