2023 World Athletics Championships – Women's 10,000 metres

Women's 10,000 metres at the 2023 World Championships
Gudaf Tsegay and Sifan Hassan competing. Hassan stumbled just a few metres before the finish line.
Venue	National Athletics Centre
Dates	19 August
Competitors	22 from 12 nations
Winning time	31:27.18
Medalists
Gudaf Tsegay    Ethiopia   Letesenbet Gidey    Ethiopia   Ejgayehu Taye    Ethiopia
←  2022 2025  →

The women's 10,000 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre Budapest on 19 August 2023 ^[1]

Summary

On social media, Sifan Hassan posted the answer to the obvious question; Why is she attempting the triple?

“I want to see if I can do it again, because the challenge of running three distances fuels me.” ^[2]

Day one was the first step. At 1:15 p.m., Hassan's first heat of the 1500 was scheduled. That race was postponed an hour, shortening her rest time before this race, scheduled at 8:55 p.m. Meanwhile her competitors were rested and focused on this one race, anticipating Hassan's kick as a factor they needed to beat. Defending champion Letesenbet Gidey succeeded last year, winning by hundredths of a second as all the medalists held off Hassan.

The race started off slowly, Natosha Rogers relegated to the lead for three laps before handing the duty off to Camilla Richardsson who held it for the next eleven laps. Hassan took an even slower approach, dropping to dead last.

With eleven laps to go, Agnes Jebet Ngetich led the Kenyan team to the front, with the Ethiopian contingent marking the move, then Gudaf Tsegay took them forward. As the pace quickened, slower athletes fell off the pace, but Hassan was always at the back of the group still in contact with the lead. Gidey took her turn in the lead, then Ejgayehu Taye took them to three laps to go. Grace Nawowuna burned the next lap breaking the lead group down to ten. The Ethiopians asserted themselves into Tsegay and Gidey leading most of the penultimate lap. They continued to accelerate through the bell, with Hassan running around the field from tenth to first during the penultimate turn. Down the backstretch and through the final turn only the Ethiopians were able to chase. Hassan looked back to see she had the edge on Gidey but Tsegay would not go away. Hassan had a one metre lead at the start of the home stretch, but Tsegay kept edging closer. Hassan drifted out into lane 2, making Tsegay's path longer, suddenly, 20 metres from home, Hassan's legs went out from under her and she fell to the track. Tsegay continued on to victory. 7 metres back, Gidey held off Taye to complete the medals and a sweep for Ethiopia. Hassan got up and walked on to the finish. Gidey walked back to give her a high five and a hug as she crossed the finish in eleventh place.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows: ^[3]

Record	Athlete & Nat.	Perf.	Location	Date
World record	Letesenbet Gidey  (ETH)	29:01.03	Hengelo, Netherlands	8 June 2021
Championship record	Berhane Adere  (ETH)	30:04.18	Saint-Denis, France	23 August 2003
World Leading	Gudaf Tsegay  (ETH)	29:29.73	Nerja, Spain	23 June 2023
African Record	Letesenbet Gidey  (ETH)	29:01.03	Hengelo, Netherlands	8 June 2021
Asian Record	Wang Junxia  (CHN)	29:31.78	Beijing, China	8 September 1993
North, Central American and Caribbean record	Alicia Monson  (USA)	30:03.82	San Juan Capistrano, United States	4 March 2023
South American Record	Carmen de Oliveira  (BRA)	31:47.76	Stuttgart, Germany	21 August 1993
European Record	Sifan Hassan  (NED)	29:06.82	Hengelo, Netherlands	6 June 2021
Oceanian record	Kimberley Smith  (NZL)	30:35.54	Palo Alto, United States	4 May 2008

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 30:40.00. ^[4]

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (CEST), was as follows: ^[5]

Date	Time	Round
19 August	20:55	Final

Results

The final was started on 19 August at 20:59. ^[6]

The race underway

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Gudaf Tsegay	Ethiopia  (ETH)	31:27.18
	Letesenbet Gidey	Ethiopia  (ETH)	31:28.16	SB
	Ejgayehu Taye	Ethiopia  (ETH)	31:28.31
4	Irine Jepchumba Kimais	Kenya  (KEN)	31:32.19	SB
5	Alicia Monson	United States  (USA)	31:32.29
6	Agnes Jebet Ngetich	Kenya  (KEN)	31:34.83	PB
7	Ririka Hironaka	Japan  (JPN)	31:35.12	SB
8	Jessica Warner-Judd	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	31:35.38
9	Grace Nawowuna	Kenya  (KEN)	31:38.17
10	Sarah Chelangat	Uganda  (UGA)	31:40.04	SB
11	Sifan Hassan	Netherlands  (NED)	31:53.35
12	Elise Cranny	United States  (USA)	31:57.51	SB
13	Diane van Es	Netherlands  (NED)	32:05.85
14	Natosha Rogers	United States  (USA)	32:08.05
15	Camilla Richardsson	Finland  (FIN)	32:15.74
16	Stella Chesang	Uganda  (UGA)	32:38.90	SB
17	Lemlem Hailu	Ethiopia  (ETH)	32:42.78
18	Sarah Lahti	Sweden  (SWE)	33:09.22	SB
19	Luz Mery Rojas	Peru  (PER)	33:19.61
20	Rino Goshima  [ ja ]	Japan  (JPN)	33:20.38
21	Maria Lucineida da Silva	Brazil  (BRA)	35:54.18
	Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui	Kazakhstan  (KAZ)	DNF

References

1. "WCH Budapest 23 preview: 10,000m". World Athletics . 13 August 2023. Archived from the original on 18 August 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
2. "Sifan Hassan to repeat Tokyo Olympic triple at world championships". NBC Sports. 17 August 2023. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
3. "10,000 Metres Women − Records". World Athletics . Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
4. "Qualifying System and Entry Standards" (PDF). World Athletics . 19 August 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
5. "Women 10000 Metres Timetable". World Athletics . Archived from the original on 13 February 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
6. "Results 10,000 Metres Women - Final" (PDF). World Athletics . 19 August 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 August 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.