Kicking effortlessly past Ejegayehu Dibaba in the final 80 metres, Xing Huina captured the Olympic title in the 10,000 metres, claiming the first victory in the event for China.
Biding her time behind the pace-setting east Africans, the 20-year-old reached the line in 30:24.36, 62/100s ahead of Dibaba's PB 30:24.98 to foil the efforts of the Ethiopians to duplicate the podium sweep of their male compatriots.
It was also a personal best for Xing, the World Junior record holder, whose previous best of 30:31.55 was set in last summer’s classic race at the World Championships in Paris. Exceeding expectations and defying her critics, two-time Olympic champion Derartu Tulu passed teammate Werknesh Kidane in the last fifty metres to claim the bronze in 30:26.42, nearly two second ahead of the reigning World Championships silver medallist.
In a surprisingly fast race, six of the top 11 finishers clocked personal bests; three of those -Latvian Jelena Prokopcuka (7th, 31:04.10), Slovenia’ s Helena Javornik (10th, 31:06.63) and Mihaela Botezan of Romania (11th,31:11.24) - ran to national records.
Paula Radcliffe’s misfortune in championship races continued in Athens. The World record holder in the marathon, Radcliffe, who dropped out of the longer race five days ago, made the decision to contest the track race only this morning. After a few attempts at controlling the pace, Radcliffe dropped out of this race as well, with eight-and-a-half laps to go.
Prokopcuka lead a large pack through two kilometers in 6:21.82, with Japan’s Megumi Tanaka, China’s Sun Yingjie and Radcliffe a few step behind. Kidane, Tulu and Lornah Kiplagat took turns with the lead in the next few laps, before Radcliffe moved to the front with 18 laps to go, and brought the field through 3-K in 9:27.40. But Radcliffe didn’t - or couldn’t - increase the tempo, and simply drafted Yingjie, Kiplagat and the Ethiopians.
The Ethiopian trio took solid command of the race as the lead pack approached the midpoint. Kidane reached the in 15:34.56, before two-time champion Tulu took over. Visibly struggling, Radcliffe dropped back significantly, nearly seven seconds behind the leaders, struggling to stay in tenth place. With nine laps to go, the pack was reduced to nine; two laps later, to five –-the Ethiopians, Kiplagat and Xing.
Kidane and Dibaba steadily upped the tempo in the final laps, managing to drop Kiplagat, but not the persistently patient Xing. When she made her move heading into the straight, the Ethiopians were left to battle for the remaining medals. The 62.86 final lap was too much for Kidane, who eventually dropped to fourth, but more than three seconds ahead of Lornah Kiplagat.
27 of the 31 entrants finished the race.
BR
