Tatyana Mineeva of Russia wins the Women's 10,000m Race Walk (© Getty Images)
Russian Tatyana Mineeva had a dream performance on Wednesday's second morning to capture the women's 10,000 metres walk race in a Championship record.
"This was dream for me," she immediately admitted after her 43 minutes, 24.72 seconds performance.
Mineeva's performance erased her country woman previous Championships mark of 44 minutes, 07.74 seconds set in 2000.
"I believed in God and my coach," Mineeva hinted to what she believes took her to the gold medal.
Mineeva's Russian team-mate, Elmira Alembekova, was second in 43 minutes, 45.16 seconds while China's Yanfei Li was third in 44 minutes, 24.10 seconds.
Alembekova was also satisfied with her performance. "I am very happy satisfied with my result, I think it broke my personal best," she said.
400m Hurdles heats
Meanwhile, in preliminary round action, the men's 400m Hurdles, which saw four national records and nine personal best times, saw American Jeshua Anderson, the second fastest person in the world this season at 48.69, leading his rivals going into Thursday's semi-finals with his 51.12 seconds.
American Johnny Dutch, who leads the world with 48.52 this season, also advanced with an easy 52.21 seconds.
Dutch is very serious about what is ahead of him. "This competition is very important for me. I missed the Olympic team, so I see this as my first step towards making it at the international level," he said.
Taras Shcherenko of Israel (51.44), Barbadian Shane Brathwaite (5166), Artem Dyatlow of Uzbekistan (52.62) have all advanced with the new national junior records, but Leslie Murray of Ivory Coast (52.64) did not make it.
In the women's event, Jamaica's Nikita Tracey ran a personal best, 57.58 seconds, to advance to Thursday's semi-finals with the fastest time.
"I think it was a good race," Tracey said. "I broke my personal record, so I am more than satisfied," continued the 17-year-old.
"I would like to run as well as I can in the semi-final round to get into the final," she added.
Trinidad & Tobago's Janeil Bellelle (58.40) and Ukraine's Hanna Yaroshchuk (58.58) are the other top qualifiers.
In the field, seven women – Great Britain's pair of Ann Katrin Schwarz and Natasha Benner, Vicky Parnov of Australia, Russian pair Valeriya Volik and Ekaterina Kolesova, Finland's Vanessa Vandy, Petra Olsen of Sweden, and American Rachel Laurent have all cleared 4.00 metres. Twelve athletes will contest the final.
Click here for event by event report of all finals
Anthony Foster for the IAAF
