10,000 Metres Betting
The 10,000 Metres is the longest standard track event where runners compete over 25 laps of a standard 400 Metre track. It’s equal to 6.214 miles and is a true test of an athlete’s ability, endurance and determination. Some leading athletes have said that their typical weekly training sees them do in excess of 100 miles a week. As with most long distance races, 10,000 Metres betting can be really exciting especially with the in-play betting available from around the industry. There are a number of 10,000 Metre betting markets to whet your appetite and these include overall winner, world record to be broken, straight forecast betting and individual athlete’s performance.
The men’s 10,000 Metre was first introduced into the Olympics in 1912 with the women’s event coming into play from the Seoul Olympics in 1988. The early part of the men’s event saw athletes from Finland dominate the event and is wasn’t until the 1960s until the African nations starting showing their colours. In more rent times (1993 to 2011), the Ethiopian’s have really dominating the event winning 10 of the 11 World Championships and also four Olympic titles (Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing).
Great Athletes Compete in the 10,000 Metres
Over the year’s we’ve been privileged to have seen some great athletes compete in the 10,000 Metres, none more than the great Ethiopian’s Haile Gabreslassie and Kenenisa Bekele. Both runners have dominated the event in recent times winning back-to-back world and Olympic titles. Gebrselassie was the first ever runner to post a time of under 26 minutes 30 seconds (career best of 26 minutes 22 seconds set in Hengelo in 2998) and Bekele is the only person to have recorded a time of under 26 minutes 20 seconds (26 minutes 17 seconds set in Brussels in 2005).
More recently the 10,000 Metres has received a lot more coverage within the media and that is mainly down to the performances of Great Britain’s Mo Farah. The Brit has really come into calculations in 2011 and after his second place at the 2011 World Championships in South Korea, Farah has laid down the gauntlet down to the African nations.
In the women’s 10,000 Metres, Wang Junxia set the world alight when she recorded a time of 29:31:78 in 1993 (Beijing Olympics). That run was the first ever sub 30 minute performance by a woman. Since then, four other female athletes have managed to break the 30 minute barrier and these are Meselech Melkamu (ETH), Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), Meseret Defar (ETH) and Elvan Abeylegesse (TUR).
