‘My doping is Jesus’, says 10,000m winner after smashing world record by 14 seconds

Almaz Ayana insists she is clean after smashing the 10,000m world record to win gold.

‘My doping is Jesus’, says 10,000m winner after smashing world record by 14 seconds

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana was forced to answer doping doubters after obliterating the 23-year-old 10,000 metres world record to claim the first Olympic athletics gold in Rio.

Ayana produced a startling run at the Olympic Stadium to storm home in 29 minutes 17.45 seconds, taking more than 14 seconds off the highly-questionable mark set by China's Wang Junxia in 1993.

Vivian Cheruiyot ran a Kenyan record to take silver, but was still more than 15 seconds behind her 24-year-old rival.

The blue track is clearly quick - the race featured eight national records and 18 personal bests - but Ayana's display was incredible.

Cheruiyot, bronze medallist Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Alice Nawowuna, the Kenyan who set the early pace before finishing fourth, all ran times that before this race only Wang had ever bettered.

Earlier this year Chinese state media reported Wang, along with nine team-mates coached by the controversial Ma Junren, had written a letter - penned in 1995 but which had only just come to light - admitting to being an unwilling participant in a state-sponsored doping programme.

Ayana, whose previous PB was 30mins 07.00secs, hailed her world record as "a dream come true".

Asked for her response to critics doubting whether it was clean, she said: "My doping is my training, my doping is Jesus. Otherwise, nothing. I am crystal clear."

Press Association Sports understands there was some concern over whether Ayana would even be well enough to race as she appeared ill in the call room and was coughing a lot.

Jo Pavey finished 15th as she made history by becoming the first British track athlete to appear at five Olympics, the 42-year-old mother of two clocking a season's best 31:33.44.

Pavey, whose team-mates Jess Andrews and Beth Potter finished 16th and 34th respectively, said of Ayana's performance: "When I heard the time afterwards I couldn't believe it. It's so much faster than you could ever imagine someone would run.

"You don't think the Chinese records will ever go. You don't always think of them as records really. That was an amazing race, I never thought that would happen. I don't know whether to have been pleased or not to have been in that.

"You can't say anything unless you've got any proof, you've just got to admire performances until you know differently. I can't be one to suspect performances unless you've got proof, because it's a sad day if anything's good you've got to suspect it.

"I've got no reason to say everybody who does well is cheating. You just have to hope you can believe what you're seeing."

The drug testing system in Ethiopia has come in for fierce criticism, though.

Speaking on the BBC, marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe said: "I'm not sure that I can understand that. When I saw the world record set in 1993, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And Ayana has absolutely blitzed that time."

Brendan Foster added: "You see things pushed along sometimes - you think of Bob Beamon in the long jump - but I'm not sure what to make of that to be honest."

Pavey, the 2014 European champion, had joked in the run-up to the race that when she heard in 2005 that London had won the bid to host the Olympics in 2012 she thought how sad it was that she would not be able to compete at a home Games.

Four years after London and she is still going strong.

She was never a realistic medal contender here, but insisted she planned to carry on racing, targeting next summer's World Championships in London.

She said: "I would have liked to have run a bit quicker but realistically I am getting very old.

"When I was a school girl dreaming of going to an Olympic Games I would never have imagined I'd be here having done five. It felt so special to be on that start line.

"It does give me motivation to go on to next year, there's a carrot of it being at home again."

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