Something doesn’t feel right when so many of us are suddenly rubbing our eyes not long into the first morning session inside the Olympic Stadium, and not through tiredness, but through utter disbelief.
The idea of dropping the women’s 10,000m final into the first morning session, instead of the traditional evening slot, was to create some immediate excitement, although no one predicted the stunning world-record performance from Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, in what was only her second ever race over the distance.
Ayana’s time of 29:17.45 simply crushed one of the most controversial world records in the books – the 29:31.78 which had stood to the Chinese runner Wang Junxia, part the infamous Ma’s Army, since 1993.
In the process, the 25-year-old Ayana also beat two-time defending champion and fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba into third (who still ran a lifetime best of 29:42.56) – with Kenya’s world champion Vivian Cheruiyot winning silver in 29:32.53, just under a second outside the old world record.
Exceptional race
It was clearly an exceptional race on many levels, creating seven national records in all, 11 personal bests, plus six season bests. Still, it raised some inevitable question marks, and questions, the Swedish runner Sarah Lahti, who finished 12th in a national record of 31:28.43 (improving her best by 26 seconds), immediately expressing her doubts over whether or not Ayana was running clean.
When this remark was put to Ayana in the post-race press conference room, she simply smiled, pulled up her chair, and said (via her translator): “Three basic things. I did my training, specifically (for the) 5,000m and 10,000m.
“Number two, I praise the Lord. God has given me everything, every blessing. My doping is my training. My doping is Jesus. Otherwise. Nothing. I am crystal clear.”
Things moved swiftly along from there, Ayana confirming she would double up later in the week in the 5,000m, that being her preferred distance anyway, having already claimed the World title in Beijing last summer with a similarly eye-rubbing display of front-running, winning in 14:26.83.
For Mark English, the speed of the track had little do to with his qualification for the semi-finals of the 800 metres – widely billed as one of the most competitive races of these Olympics.
Because in reaching that semi-final (set for 2.26am on Saturday, Irish time), English now faces defending champion David Rudisha from Kenya, plus Poland’s two-time European champion Adam Kszczot, amongst others: only the top two will go through (plus the two fastest losers from the three semi-finals).
Ran with confidence
Running in the sixth of seven heats, with only the top-three sure of progressing, English ran with confidence, sitting at the very back of the eight-man field for the first lap, before moving up with immaculate timing to move into third down the homestretch, running 1:46.40, just down on race winner Brandon McBride from Canada, who took the win in 1:45.99, with Marcin Lewandowski from Poland second in 1:46.35.
“I knew at about 500m people might be a little bit worried about where I was,” said English. “I just wanted to run relaxed, the first 500m, and knew if I didn’t give them too much of a jump, I could close as quick as anyone.
“But you just have to believe in your own strengths at that stage. I knew I was good enough for that last 200m, just trusted my own race plan. I felt good, especially the last 200m, and I’m just delighted it went to plan.”
