Tatyana Kalymkova set a championship record of 22:14.47 to lead a Russian one-two. Elmira Alembekova also dipped under the old best with 22:27.17 after staying with her compatriot until the 4km mark. China’s Xue Chai was third, taking more than 42 seconds off her personal best with 22:34.28.
Alembekova lead her compatriot for most of the first 3km, clocking respective kilometre splits of 4:25.02, 4:26.20 and 4:25.39. However, it was at this point that Chai found the pace going too tough and shortly afterwards, Kalymkova took over the lead.
When the pair completed the next kilometre in 4:21.47, the eventual winner started to stretch away.
With a final kilometre of 4:21.47, by far the quickest of the race, Kalymkova set a tempo which Alembekova, the quickest in the world this year, could not match on this occasionto claim the gold and a personal best by more than 11 seconds.