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

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

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

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

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

Records

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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

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A time B time
31:45.00 32:00.00

Schedule

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Date Time Round
August 27, 2011 21:00 Final

Results

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

Final

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya (KEN) 30:48.98 PB
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Sally Kipyego  Kenya (KEN) 30:50.04
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 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

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  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.
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