1. Almaz Ayana
In the first half of our countdown, we talked about Kenyans being dominant in their various events. Now we change gears to talk about one of the greatest long distance runners of all time, Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana.
Ayana is the reigning World 5000m Champion and has been unbeaten in over a year, setting several records in almost every meet she has participated in.
This year can already be termed as the most successful of her career as she currently holds two of the fastest times in 5000m history, with the most recent being at the IAAF Golden Gala in Rome, where she clocked 14:12.59, which is the second fastest of all time, only behind Tirunesh Dibaba’s World Record (WR).
Less than a month later, she recorded the fastest ever debut in 10,000m history, clocking 30:07.00 at the Ethiopian Olympic Trials, defeating Dibaba once again.
Her superb performances this year highlighted her intentions of breaking the WR at both distances in Rio. This she did on the first day of the Athletics event on Friday, smashing the 10000m record of more than 23years, with a new record of 29:17.45, which is 14s faster than the previous one.
The 24-year old will be gunning to achieve the same feat in the 5000m, and with her astonishing performance in the 10000m, there’s no question as to whether she can perform the same feat in her specialist event.
