Four laps into the women’s 3000m final, the stadium announcer described the pace as “relatively sedate,” which was putting it very mildly.
The 12-woman field passed 400m in 1:22 and 800m in 2:46, and many people wondered whether we were watching a Sunday afternoon stroll along Sopot Pier, the longest wooden pier in Europe, or a championship race.
Any chance of Genzebe Dibaba troubling the record books – the championship record books, let alone the global one in which she had made three marks this season – had been blown out of the water. Elly van Hulst’s 8:33.82, already a quarter of a century old, would survive for at least another two years.
Video: Genzebe Dibaba wins Gold in Women’s 3000m – Universal Sports
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