Almaz Ayana wins gold and blitzes world record in scintillating women's 10,000m final

Almaz Ayana is currently the talk of Rio 2016 after claiming women's 10,000m gold on the first day of athletics competition in Brazil. Not content with merely trouncing the rest of a competitive field which included Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot and three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba, the Ethiopian's stunning finishing time of 29:17.45 smashed Wang Junxia's 23-year world record by an astonishing 13 seconds.

The pace of the final was incredibly fast from the very start and, according to International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) magazine Spikes, featured a glut of other records including one area and eight national.

There were also 18 personal bests recorded and silver medalist Cheruiyot came perilously close to surpassing the previous world mark herself. Dibaba was forced to settle for an uncharacteristic bronze.

Current world 5,000m champion Ayana's sizable achievement is made even more impressive when you consider that it is only the second time she has ever competed at the longer distance. Team GB's Jo Pavey, racing in her fifth Olympic Games at the ripe old age of 42, clocked a season's best time of 31:33.44 but it was only good enough for 15th. Teammate Jessica Andrews crossed the line once place further back and Beth Potter was 34th.

"I found it tough out there," Pavey told BBC Sport afterwards. "I'm so honoured to have competed at my fifth Olympics, but in reality I am getting old. It was fairly humid. I would like to have been more competitive, but I gave my best and that is all I could do."