Gulnara Galkina-Samitova ran the first sub-nine minute 3,000 steeplechase in history to take the gold medal in the Bird's Nest last night.

The 30-year-old Russian steadily stretched the field with her long, elegant stride until she was all alone and only had the clock to beat.

Russia's Gulnara Galkina-Samitova runs to the gold in the women's 3,000m steeplechase yesterday. [Agencies]

And that she did, improving her own world record from the 9 min 1.59 sec set in Heraklion four years ago to 8: 58.81.

Eunice Jepkorir of Kenya took silver in 9:07.41 almost nine seconds back, edging another Russian, Ekaterina Volkova, who finished in 9:07.64, in a sprint finish.

The women's steeplechase made its debut at the world championships in 2005 and Russians have dominated the early years.

In the maiden running of the event at the Olympics, Galkina-Samitova dominated the field of 15, leading from the start and setting a punishing pace that exacted early casualties among her rivals.

Only Russian Tatiana Petrova, Kenyan duo Jepkorir and Ruth Nyangau and Ethiopian Zemzem Ahmed could stick with the punishing pace.

As Galkina-Samitova came through with four laps remaining, she had built up an unsurmountable 10m lead on Petrova.

The final lap saw Jepkorir battle back into second and Volkova win the duel with Petrova for the bronze medal position.

Galkina-Samitova, who was seventh in the steeple at last year's world championships in Osaka, was world indoor bronze medallist over 1500m in 2004 and finished sixth in the 5000m at the Athens Games in the same year.

Agencies