The Women's 10000m final at the Beijing Olympics was a simply brilliant display of distance running by Ethiopia's Tirenish Dibaba and Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse, who both went under the magical 30 minute barrier for the distance. Dibaba prevailed in winning in a time of 29:54.66, new Olympic Record, only going to the front with 300m to go.
ex-Ethiopian, Abeylegesse, clocked 29:56.34 for an array of records. They can both thank the Netherland's Lornah Kiplagat for keeping the race true and honest by grinding out a solid pace till the 6000m mark which was reached in 18:12.85 before Abeylegesse took over the front-running role and upped the tempo.
For those athletes who came into the race expecting a tactical race similar to Osaka 2007 , were sorely disappointed but many came away with personal bests. The one athlete most suited to the fast pace was the American record holder in both the 5000m and 10000m, Shalane Flanagen. In a slower tempo race Flanagan would in all likelihood not have stood a chance once the athletes got down to racing, however she was able to pick off her competitors by maintaining her pace and catching all the stragglers by moving up from 6 th place to bronze medal over the final 3km. Flanagan passed Kenya 's Linet Masai with 1km to go and worked hard to keep the new World Junior record holder (30:26.50 in 4th) at bay with her new USA record of 30:22.22 .
From 5th to 13th position, no fewer than 5 athletes set new PB's and Britain's Jo Pavey (31:12.30) was one of them, who had to leave The Nest happy with a new personal best but well off a podium finish, the USA's Kara Goucher bronze medalist in Osaka recorded a creditable 30:55.16 and after such a sublime performance by Dibaba an attack on the world record should be on the cards in the not too distant future.
Earlier in the day, Mozambique's Maria de Lurdes Mutola qualified for yet another Olympic semi-final place by winning her heat in the fastest time of the day with 1:58.91. However this time was mainly due to Australia 's current World Indoor Champion of 2008, Tamsyn Lewis, setting the pace so she could assure herself going through as fastest qualifier.
Event favourite, Kenya's Pamela Jelimo, won her heat but surprisingly ran a tactical affair.
The Men's 1500m heats presented the ominous form of Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi with 3:32.89. On this form ramzi is installed as favourite to win the title and another feature of the heats was the lack of acceleration by Osaka double victor - 1500/5000 - Bernard Lagat. It may have been a bad race but on such form Lagat would be lucky to make the final in the 1500m. I would love to be way off regarding this assumption.
France's Mehdi Baala won his heat against New Zealand's Nick Willis however the Frenchman has so often flattered to only deceive once the chips are on the table that it does not excite the scribes that the one time hear apparent to the 1500m throne will deliver when needed most but still good to see him in good form.
South Africa's Juan van Deventer ran a truly solid tactical race to qualify for the semis by winning his heat in 3:36.32 and it may take something special like a new National Record to qualify for the final. Britain's current wonder boy, Andrew Baddeley, qualified comfortably in the same heat.
Ireland 's Alistair Cragg looked out of his depth in running over the 1500m distance and one can only hope this provides the kind of session he hoped for in his build-up towards the 5000.
In the Women's 3000m SteepleChase, being run for the first time at an Olympics, Russia's world record holder over the distance, Gulnara Samitova-Galkinay, showed tremendous form in setting a world leading 9:15.17 with positions 4th to 6th all setting national records - 4th Cristina Casandra ROU 9:22.38 (NR),
5th Habiba Ghribi TUN 9:25.50 (NR) and Britain's Helen Clitheroe failing to qualify with her 9:29.14 (NR)
We move to day2 - Saturday 16th
