2003 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 10,000 metres

The women's 10,000 metres event featured at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France.

[1] Almost 10 years before this race, Wang Junxia had set the world record out to a remarkable 29:31.78 at the 1993 National Games of China.

Then Sun Yingjie took the point, her awkward running form taking the crowd through 4K in 12:00.16.

Kenyan ex-pat Lornah Kiplagat running for The Netherlands then took over the lead, 15:06.53 to the halfway point and the next kilometer just barely over 3 minutes to take the 5 leaders to 6K in 18:07.25.

The photo finish revealed that Kidane had beaten Sun by .05 of a second after 10,000 metres.