The performance of Russia's Galkina was mesmerising as she strove to exorcise the demons of Osaka 2007 by winning the Women's 3000m SteepleChase in a new World Record time of 8:58.81 at the Beijing Olympic stadium this evening.
The 2007 World Championship was a bitter pill to swallow for Galkina when her compatriot Yekaterina Volkova and winner in Osaka was quoted as saying that records are for Galkina and the Gold medal was for her, now however Galkina has both. Gold on the greatest stage of all and the first athlete ever to break the 9 minute barrier and all this in the inaugural women's Olympic final to boot.
After the Russian's performance on Friday; where she ran a solo 9:15.17, the fastest time of the year at the time, we would not have been surprised if the final was a tactical affair and that Gold was around the neck of another recipient other than Galkina. However an opening kilometer of 2:58.63, her stall was set and with her next kilometer a shade over 3 minutes for 6:01.20 the rest of the field were left for dead when she again upped her tempo recording her closing kilometer in 2:57.61 for a sub 9 min performance.
Volkova had Silver grabbed from her by the desperate final finish of Kenyan Eunice Jepkorir who set a new Area Record in the process with her finishing time of 9:07.41 compared to 9:07.64.
There were further National Records behind Gold, with Romania's Cristina Casandra in 5th with a time of 9:16.85, Zemzem Ahmed of Ethiopia in 7th with 9:17.85 and the USA's Jennifer Barringer in 9th with 9:22.26.
A truly memorable performance for all the right reasons.
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Men's 10000m Final
The Men's final saw a repeat of Athens 2004 10000m with Gold ahead of another familiar Silver face in the role of Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele and Sihine Sileshi. On this occasion Bekele patiently bided his time before unleashing a devastating final lap sprint with Sihine in tow to the line for the finishing and new Olympic Record time of 27:01. Kenya's Micah Kogo took bronze in 27:04.11.
Living legend Haile Gebrselassie finishing in 6th with 27:06.68, quite incredibly this was Geb's fastest time recorded in an Olympic Games, despite winning in 1996 and 2000. This augers well for his tilt at the Marathon World Record in Berlin in September.
Men's 1500m semis
The favourite for the 1500m title, Rashid Ramzi, moved into the final with the ease of a champion in the making and in a remarkably similar manner as in the World Championships in Helsinki 2005 where he achieved the 800 / 1500m double. Yet again, France's Mehdi Baala looks to have rounded into good shape and moved into the final which currentlylooks like Ramzi's for the taking.
Whether it will be a fast final or a slow final will make no difference to the USA's Bernard Lagat who lacked the zip to get through to the last twelve.
One athlete who will be there is Britain 's Andrew Baddeley and on current showing looks like a medal contender 'roughie'
South Africa 's Juan van Deventer squeaked into the final ahead of Lagat on time and can be pleased on making the final considering the host of names who failed to progress further than the semis.
New Zealand 's Nick Willis finds himself in an Olympic final and anything is possible on the day however Gold looks likely for Bahrain, unless 
On to Day 4
