On the second day of the World Championships in Oregon, the women's 10,000 meters race brought a climax.
It was a highly anticipated race: Ethiopia's world record holder Letesenbet Gidey, the Netherlands' Tokyo Olympics and Doha double champion Sifan Hassan, Kenya's last two-time World Championships 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri, and Eilish McColgan, who has set multiple consecutive British records since last year. Wait for a number of good players to gather in Hayward.
Who did the world's best result this season belong to? Elise Cranny of the United States ran 30:14.66 in California in March. But she did not participate in this year's US Championships in the 10,000 meters, but chose to make a desperate bet on the 5,000 meters, so she missed the 10,000 meters of the World Championships.
As the defending champion of the 5000 meters, Obiri, who has a wild card, even gave up the opportunity to impact the three consecutive championships of the project, no doubt wanting to make a difference in the 10,000 meters.
Hassan, who briefly recorded two days in the 10,000m last year, has been in a period of adjustment this season since winning two golds and one bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, making his season debut in Portland a week before the Opening of the World Championships, winning a 5,000m race in an unremarkable 15:13.41.
Until the World Championships, Hassan and his team had been saying they would not be able to do the same triathlon as Tokyo, but it was still uncertain which one to give up. On the first match day of the World Championships, Hassan, as the defending champion, did not appear in the 1500m preliminaries, which seems to indicate that she will try to defend the 10,000m at Eugene and attack the gold medal in the 5000m (Hassan won the bronze medal in the 5000m at the World Championships in 2017).
The above is the background and main appearance of the women's 10,000 meters of the World Championships held in the early morning of Beijing time this morning.
The waves do not surprise the sudden change of the storm
At the beginning of the race, Japan's Ririka Hironaka and Britain's Iris McCogan have been in the lead, the first 5,000 meters took 15:19.28, all 19 runners did not pull away, the gap was within 1 second; After 5600 meters, people gradually fell behind, but the first group still had as many as 15 people.
After 6800 meters, two Ethiopian players, Gidey and Taye, made eye contact, and the pace of the race began to accelerate, with world record holder Gidey holding the inside line steadily, and Taye cruising around her. Obiri failed several attempts to overtake from the outside, while Hassan continued to wait for an opportunity in the rear.
On the penultimate lap, the leading group ran 69.17 seconds, the fastest lap of the race so far, but the real race had just begun, with Gidey leading into the final lap. At the end of a corner, Obiri and Hassan overtook Taye from the outer road and almost tied with Gidey.
At the 2019 World Championships in Doha and last year's Olympics in Tokyo, Gidey lost in the sprint stage. But this time, Gidey didn't make a mistake a third time, and she continued to hold the inside line during the sprint phase while looking back at her opponent several times.
The tightly chased Obiri was unable to close the narrow gap, and finally watched Gidi take the lead through the finish line with a world best of the season at 30:09.94, obiri's 0.08 second disadvantage was second, but 0.05 seconds ahead of compatriot Kipkenboy, Hassan was fourth in 30:10.56, defending the title and failing.
Gidey's time on the last lap was a staggering 60.77 seconds!
Post-match story and replay
After winning the championship, Gidi did not stop in the mixed picking area, and the regular press conference was cancelled because Gidi did not want to speak out before the 5000m race. She made the following statement through the World Athletics Association:
"It was my biggest goal, and my dream came true. This victory is even more important to me than the world record. I'm very happy with this game. I've been dreaming of this gold medal since 2019, but Hassan has been there. I also saw Obiri.
This time, competing with them, I knew I had to run very fast in the last 300 meters. I managed to stay ahead and maintain speed knowing the finish line. I now have my next dream – to win the gold medal in the 5000m. With God's help, I can get the double crown and I am now full of faith. ”
Ethiopia's tactics were clear: Gidey and Taye took the lead on the last eight laps, trying to distance themselves from their opponents. But it's hard to say if that tactic worked, though Gidey eventually won the title — because in the last 300 metres, there are still six more likely to compete for the title.
This is a situation that Gedie may have tried to avoid as much as possible, as Hassan has beaten her on the final lap in both world series.
| Events | Winning the title | The last lap took | |
| Hassan | Gideon | ||
| World Championships in Doha | 30:17.23 | 61.49 | 64.87 |
| Tokyo Olympics | 29:55.32 | 61.60 | 68.02 |
| Eugene World Championships | 30:09.94 | 60.97 | 60.77 |
It can be seen that Gidey's victory today came from an amazing performance on the last lap, when she blocked the attacks of Hassan and Obiri. Hassan ran faster than Doha and Tokyo on the final lap, but failed to capture the inner road and eventually lost the race.
However, the table above is also a little misleading: the final four laps of the Doha World Championships are much faster than Eugene's. Gidy's time in the last 1500m in Doha was 4:03.68, but Hassan was faster at 3:59.09, thus beating Gidey to win the championship. Here's another comparison table from the women's 10,000 metres at the last two World Championships.
| World Championships in Doha | distance | Eugene World Championships |
| 14:45 | Last 5000 meters | 14:50 |
| 9:13.35 | Last 3200 meters | 9:15.95 |
| 4:17.48 | Last 1600 meters | 4:31.92 |
| 2:07.26 | Last 800 meters | 2:09.97 |
| 61.10 | Last 400 meters | 60.77 |
In the eyes of the audience, there was another minor controversy in the match: Gidey turned back to look at his opponent at least five times in the final straights and tried to block Obiri by cutting to the outside line. Obiri expressed "displeasure" after the race about what happened in the last 20 metres of the race, but also acknowledged that it was part of the race and that she herself and the Kenyan delegation would not appeal the outcome.
At the same time, Obiri also revealed that he is preparing for his marathon debut in November. The only world-class marathon in November is the New York City Marathon. Earlier, Gidey had decided to participate in the Valencia Marathon in December.
The competition for the track race will continue to the road.
Some statistics for this game
Gidey's 30:09.94 was the second fastest win in World Championship history, behind the 30:04.18 World Championship record set by compatriot Berhane Adere in Paris in 2003.
The 2003 race was the fastest World Championship women's 10,000m race in history, and in addition to Adre, Ethiopia's Werknesh Kidane (30:07.15) who finished second and China's Sun Yingjie (30:07.15) who finished second were also faster than Gidey's victory today.
Eugene's match was also the most competitive World Championship in history: Gidey had an advantage of just 0.08 seconds ahead of runner-up Obiri, 0.13 seconds ahead of third-place Kipkenboy, and only 0.62 seconds ahead of fourth-place Hassan.
The narrowest gap between the top three in the women's 10,000m at the previous World Championships was the 2009 World Championships in Berlin: Kenya's Linet Chepkwemoi Masai won 30:51.24, 0.1 seconds and 0.71 seconds ahead of the two Ethiopian athletes Meselech Melkamu and Wude Ayalew behind him.
Taye, who was willing to work as a wingman for Gidey later in the race, had only run one 10,000m before, that is, in the Ethiopian trials in Hengelo, where she finished third in 30:44.68.
Today, Tayer significantly improved his personal best to 30:12.45 to finish sixth – all of the top six in this game surpassed the previous world best of the year by American Clanie 30:14.66.
Of all 19 players in the competition, 11 set their bests, setting three new national records for Eritrea (30:12.15), Kazakhstan (30:17.64) and Uganda (31:01.04).
All of the top nine players, with the exception of world record holder Gidey and former world record holder Hassan, all set new personal bests.
Ethiopia's Bosena Mulatie finished eighth in the race 30:17.77, the fastest women's 10,000m eighth place in history, after the Rio Olympics and Gelete Burka, also from Ethiopia, finished eighth in 30:26.66.
The Rio Olympics was considered the fastest 10,000m race in history, and with the exception of Almaz Ayana, who set a world record of 29:17.45 at the time, the top four all scored 30 points, the only one in history, and set seven national records.
U.S. Karissa Schweizer finished ninth in 30:18.05, a result that could rank third in U.S. history, behind Molly Huddle's 30:13.17 U.S. record at the Rio 2016 Olympics and Iris Clanney's 30:14.66 this year.
Britain's McCogan, who once led the way, finished tenth in 30:34.60; Another British runner, Jessica Judd, is close behind at 30:35.93, which can be ranked third in British history, behind Paula Radcliffe's 2002 British record of 30:01.09 and McCogen's 30:19.02 in Hengelo in June.
Japan's Ririka Hironaka, who once led the race, also improved her personal best from 31:00.71 to 30:39.71, becoming the fifth Japanese female runner to run, surpassing Kayoko Fukushi, Yoko Shibui and Seira Fuwa to second place in Japan's history, behind Hitomi Niiya's 30:20.44 Japanese record.
Japan Women's 10,000m Dynasty TOP5
30:20.44 Hitomi Shintani 2020
30:39.71 Guangzhong Lilijia 2022
30:45.21 Unbroken Holy Cloak Comes 2021
30:48.89 Yoko Shibui 2002
30:51.81 Kayoko Fukushi 2002
The 31:00.71 result had allowed Hironaka to finish seventh at the Tokyo Olympics, and a year later, Hiraka, whose time had improved by a full 21 seconds, was only 12th in Eugene, a sign of the fierce competition in the women's 10,000 meters. However, this result of Hironaka Ririka also refreshed the best results of Japanese athletes in the Olympic Games and World Championships, after the best result of Japanese athletes in these two world championships was 30:56.70 when Niigaya ran in fifth place at the Moscow World Championships.
On the sixth match day of the World Championships on July 20, local time, Gidey, Kipkenboy, Hassan, Taye, McCogen and Hiraka Ririjia will also participate in the preliminary round of the women's 5,000 meters to compete for the final spot on July 23.
With today's 10,000m base, with the likes of Gudaf Tsegay, Dawit Seyaum and Iris Clany, the women's 5,000m will also be highly anticipated.