Almaz Ayana destroyed the women's 10,000-meters world record Friday to win the first track and field gold medal at Rio 2016.
The Ethiopian, a world champion in the 5,000 meters who was competing at this distance on a track for only the second time, employed a bold strategy in making a break a little over halfway through to leave Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot and 2012 champion Tirunesh Dibaba to complete the podium.
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"This means everything for me. God is the one that got me here. It's a huge deal for me," Ayana said. "Getting to this point is a dream come true. I never thought that this would happen and I'm so in awe."
Ayana's time of 29:17.45 lit up a sparsely populated Olympic Stadium on a grim day in Brazil as she broke the time set by China's Wang Junxia's in 1993 by more than 14 seconds.
Her compatriot Dibaba and London 2012 bronze medalist Cheruiyot were effectively in a different race than Ayana, whose performance stands as the greatest ever by a female 10,000-meter runner.
WORLD RECORD 29:17.45
— IAAF (@iaaforg) August 12, 2016
Almaz Ayana is the first #Athletics #Olympics champion in #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/F8voeTXX5x