August 18, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 15, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 17: Russia’s Gulnara Galkina-Samitova stormed to the first Olympic women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase gold medal in a world record time of 8 minutes 58.81 seconds on Sunday.

Galkina-Samitova, who set the previous record of 9:01.59 four years ago, led from the start and quickly shook off her chasers to build a 50-metre lead going into the last lap.

“In the final I was a bit frightened because it was the Olympic Games,” Galkina-Samitova told reporters.

Kenya’s Eunice Jepkorir took silver in 9:07.41 and Russian world champion Ekaterina Volkova bronze in 9:07.64, in the event dominated by Russians and Kenyans since its introduction to the international programme in 2005.

Sunday’s victory was a major turnaround for the Russian after she finished a distant seventh at last year’s world championships after returning to competition following a two-year absence.

“Last year I was empty ... last year was an unlucky one for me, I want to forget last year,” she sad.

Pre-race favourite Volkova never threatened in unusually cool conditions, falling well behind early and only moving up in the closing laps before being outsprinted by Jepkorir for silver.Russia’s Tatiana Petrova was the only runner who tried to keep pace with Galkina-Samitova but paid the price and faded to fourth.

The run’s most grizzly moment came when Spain’s Marta Dominguez misjudged a barrier, hitting it and falling on the track disoriented and barely conscious.

Galkina-Samitova attributed at least part of her victory to a lucky bouquet of flowers she received from 20km walk champion Valeriy Borchin as she sat in a coffee shop earlier in the day.

“I will pass that lucky bunch of flowers onto someone else,” she said.—Reuters