2011 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 10,000 metres

The Women's 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on August 27.

Vivian Cheruiyot after leading the Kenyan sweep of the 10,000.
Official Video

Kenya entered a strong team including the 2009 champion Linet Masai, the reigning 5000 metres world champion Vivian Cheruiyot, and Sally Kipyego – the fastest 10,000 m runner that year. The next strongest competitors were the Ethiopian women, which included the 2009 runner-up Meselech Melkamu and Meseret Defar. The United States was represented by 2007 World bronze medallist Kara Goucher and 2008 Olympic third placer Shalane Flanagan (who was the second fastest that year).[1]

An American trio of Goucher, Flanagan and Jen Rhines set the pace in the initial stages of the competition. After around 3000 metres, the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams asserted themselves and it was only Flanagan and Shitaye Eshete who maintained the positions with them. The leading pack reached the halfway point in 15:47.04 minutes and the pace became increasingly quicker at this point – a fact which saw Tigist Kiros fall away from the pack. Flanagan and Eshete were the next to trail away, then Meseret Defar dropped out entirely with stomach pains, reducing the leading pack to the four Kenyans (Masai, Cheruiyot, Kipyego and Priscah Jepleting Cherono) and Meselech Melkamu. In the final lap, it was Cheruiyot and Kipyego who surged away into the lead. Cheruiyot held off her compatriot near the finish line to win the gold with a personal best of 30:48.98 minutes in what was only her third ever race over the distance. Kipyego took second, while Masai had a late run to take the bronze for a Kenyan sweep of the medals. Cherono was the fourth woman across the line and Meselech took fifth.[2][3] Eshete ran a Bahraini record of 31:21.57 minutes for sixth.

Kenya became only the third country to have its athletes take positions one through four in an event (the other two being Ethiopia in the women's 5000 metres and the United States in the men's 200 metres, both at 2005 World Championships).[2] The podium sweep was also unique in that it was the first time any nation had won all the medals on one day of the championships, as Kenyan women had taken all three medals in the women's marathon (the only other final of the first day).[3]

Medalists edit

Gold Silver Bronze
Vivian Cheruiyot
  Kenya (KEN)
Sally Kipyego
  Kenya (KEN)
Linet Masai
  Kenya (KEN)

Records edit

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:

World record   Junxia Wang (CHN) 29:31.78 Beijing, China 8 September 1993
Championship record   Berhane Adere (ETH) 30:04.18 Paris, France 23 August 2003
World Leading   Sally Kipyego (KEN) 30:38.35 Palo Alto, CA, United States 29 May 2011
African record   Meselech Melkamu (ETH) 29:53.80 Utrecht, Netherlands 14 June 2009
Asian record   Junxia Wang (CHN) 29:31.78 Beijing, China 8 September 1993
North, Central American and Caribbean record   Shalane Flanagan (USA) 30:22.22 Beijing, China 15 August 2008
South American record   Simone da Silva (BRA) 31:16.56 São Paulo, Brazil 3 August 2011
European record   Elvan Abeylegesse (TUR) 29:56.34 Beijing, China 15 August 2008
Oceanian record   Kim Smith (NZL) 30:35.54 Palo Alto, CA, United States 4 May 2008

Qualification standards edit

A time B time
31:45.00 32:00.00

Schedule edit

Date Time Round
August 27, 2011 21:00 Final

Results edit

KEY: q Fastest non-qualifiers Q Qualified NR National record PB Personal best SB Seasonal best

Final edit

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
  Vivian Cheruiyot   Kenya (KEN) 30:48.98 PB
  Sally Kipyego   Kenya (KEN) 30:50.04
  Linet Masai   Kenya (KEN) 30:53.59 SB
4 Priscah Jepleting Cherono   Kenya (KEN) 30:56.43 PB
5 Meselech Melkamu   Ethiopia (ETH) 30:56.55 SB
6 Shitaye Eshete   Bahrain (BHR) 31:21.57 NR
7 Shalane Flanagan   United States (USA) 31:25.57
8 Ana Dulce Félix   Portugal (POR) 31:37.03
9 Jennifer Rhines   United States (USA) 31:47.59
10 Jessica Augusto   Portugal (POR) 32:06.68 SB
11 Tigist Kiros   Ethiopia (ETH) 32:11.37
12 Christelle Daunay   France (FRA) 32:22.20
13 Kara Goucher   United States (USA) 32:29.58
14 Hikari Yoshimoto   Japan (JPN) 32:32.22
15 Kayo Sugihara   Japan (JPN) 32:53.89
16 Krisztina Papp   Hungary (HUN) 32:56.02
17 Megumi Kinukawa   Japan (JPN) 34:08.37 SB
Meseret Defar   Ethiopia (ETH) DNF
Eloise Wellings   Australia (AUS) DNS

References edit

  1. ^ Johnson, Len (2011-08-22). Women's 10,000m - PREVIEW Archived 2012-08-01 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-08-24.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Len (2011-08-27). Women's 10,000m Final - Cheruiyot leads Kenyan 1-2-3-4 (!) finish Archived 2012-05-09 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-08-28.
  3. ^ a b Mulkeen, Jon (2011-08-27). Cheruiyot wins 10,000m as Kenya dominate once more Archived 2012-06-16 at the Wayback Machine. Athletics Weekly. Retrieved on 2011-08-28.

External links edit