| 3000m Landmarks |
First official world record:
8:52.8 Lyudmila Bragina URS 1974
First under 8:30: 8:27.12 Lyudmila Bragina 1976
First under 8:20 & 8:10 (current world record): 8:06.11 Wang Junxia CHN 1993
Most durable world record: 8:22.62 Tatyana Kazankina URS 1984 (9 years)
Most times under 8:27: Gabriela Szabo ROM 5 (as at 24 Aug 2000) |
| 5000m Landmarks |
First official world record:
15:14.51 Paula Fudge GBR 1981
First under 15:00: 14:58.89 Ingrid Kristiansen NOR 1984
First under 14:30 (current world record): 14:28.09 Jiang Bo CHN 1997
Most durable world record: 14:37.33 Ingrid Kristiansen 1986 (8 years)
Most times under 14:45: Gabriela Szabo ROM & Zahra Ouaziz MAR 6 (as at 24 Aug 2000) |
| Superlatives |
Most Olympic titles (3000m): 1
by 3 women; gold/silver by Tatyana DorovskikhURS 1988/1992 (the 3000m was replaced by the
5000m at the 1996 Olympics)
Most World titles:
2 Tatyana Dorovskikh 1987/1991
2 Gabriela Szabo ROM 1997/1999
Youngest Olympic/World champion: Qu Yunxia CHN 1993 (20)
Oldest: Maricica Puica ROM 1984 (34) |
| Three all time greats |
Qu Yunxia (CHN): 1992 Olympic bronze medallist & world record holder
(3:50.46) at 1500m, she won the world 3000m title in 1993 and ran the second fastest ever
time of 8:12.18. |
Sonia O'Sullivan (IRL): The fastest non-Chinese 3000m runner with 8:21.64 in
1994, she outkicked Fernanda Ribeiro to win the inaugural world title at 5000m in1995. |
Gabriela Szabo (ROM): The European 5000m record holder at 14:31.48, she won her
first major title (1991 European Junior 3000m) at only 15 and subsequent honours have
included world 5000m titles in 1997 and 1999. |
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