BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT THE LONDON STADIUM

Yesterday we saw Mo Farah win gold in the 10,000m in what was a close race right up till the end. There was no such thing today as the Olympic Champion Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia destroyed a world-class field to win gold.  She stayed with the pack for a few laps, took the initiative and really dominated as she ran the legs out of her opponents here. She then began to lap some of the athletes and at one stage even lapped some of them twice.

Tirunesh Dibaba, who had just come back after having a baby, was a distant second, long after her compatriot, Ayana had started her celebration. Kenyan Agnes Tirop was third.

Although this is only day 2 of these championships, Ayana’s performance could easily be the performance of these championships. She said: “I am very happy to win this title, much more that when I won the Olympic gold because I have been sick this year and didn’t expect it. In fact, this was my first race of 2017. “

The silver medallist Dibaba said:”I have won many gold medals before but since I became a marathon runner, I only returned to the track for this race. I have only had two months of training, so I am happy to win silver this time.

“It was a very fast race. I knew that Almaz was going to run very fast, so. if I had followed her, I wouldn’t have won a medal. I know my capacity these days because my training for this race was very short.”