Ethiopia's world champion Tirunesh Dibaba won the first track gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in the women's 10,000 metres final today.
From when the 23-year-old hit the front with 300 metres to go, her victory was never in doubt and she crossed the line in 29 minutes 54.66 seconds, an Olympic record.
Ethiopian-born Elvan Abeylegesse, who had led for much of the latter part of the race, ran home in second to claim a first Olympic medal in athletics for a Turkish woman in 29.56.34. American Shalane Flanagan took bronze in 30.22.22.
Dibaba and Abeylegesse were only the second and third women to run under 30 minutes for the 10,000 after Chinese world record holder Wang Junxia, who set her mark in Beijing in 1993.