The Internet reacts to the 10,000m record that rocked the running world

????Tirunesh Dibaba #Rio2016 #Athletics #Olympics pic.twitter.com/ZTR0y37Hm1

— IAAF (@iaaforg) August 12, 2016

The first athletics final of the Rio Olympics turned out to be one of the greatest long distance races in history. Ethiopian Almaz Ayana ran an incredible 29:17.46 to win the women’s 10,000m in Rio to break the longstanding world record.

The previous 10,000m world record stood for 23 years and was widely considered “dirty” as the record holder later admitted to being an “unwilling participant” in state-sponsored doping in China.

See Canadian Running‘s full recap of the race here.

That women’s 10,000m final was ?

1 World Record
1 Area Record
8 National Records
18 Personal Bests#Olympics, eh? pic.twitter.com/YeMOnRdAJ9

— SPIKES (@spikesmag) August 12, 2016

Fans of the sport were quick to chime in on Twitter about the record. Friday’s 10,000m was just the Ethiopian 24-year-old’s second major attempt at the distance and she bettered her previous best by 50 seconds. Ayana broke the 1993 world record by 14 seconds and is one of the few women to have ever run under 30 minutes. To be fair, three other women broke 30 minutes on Friday morning in Rio.

“Almaz Ayana’s 29:17 for 10,000m,” reads one tweet. “We can’t accuse because there’s no evidence and we can’t believe because there’s no trust.”

The record comes at a sensitive time for track and field as the entire Russian team was banned from Rio for its doping programme. Overall, the race was fast as 18 athletes set lifetime bests including an American record. Canadians Natasha Wodak and Lanni Marchant both finished in the top-25.

Video of the finish

#ETH‘s Almaz Ayana breaks the world record in the women’s 10,000m final. https://t.co/N7x1NTPeLV https://t.co/kSpr8c8jX0

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 12, 2016

Canadian Running asked followers their thoughts on the legitimacy of today’s run. As of 2:20 p.m. EDT, 67 per cent of voters believe that the record is not clean. “Not clean” refers to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

We have to ask: Do you think that 10,000m world record was clean? #cleansport #Rio

— CanadianRunning (@CanadianRunning) August 12, 2016

Ayana has never failed a drug test though East African nations have been criticized for its lack of drug testing procedures.

American Alan Webb posted an interesting spreadsheet on Twitter today comparing American Molly Huddle’s performance to Ayana’s. His argument is that the comparison makes Ayana’s performance seem more believable in relation to her 5,000m personal bests.

RELATED: See how to stream the Olympics for free.

Rio women’s 10k comparison: #AlmazAyana WR v. @MollyHuddle AR. Congrats to all the ladies that ran PBs today. pic.twitter.com/BgB8qOHJIa

— Alan Webb (@alan_webb1) August 12, 2016

People take to Twitter

I’m sorry, I’ll say it. This is laughable. Laughable… take that for what it is.

— Steve Magness (@stevemagness) August 12, 2016

Now not to go all soft, but you can’t definitively condemn as doper based on performance alone. There’s alway context (eg: testing quality)

— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) August 12, 2016

Ayana ran a 14:30 second half – quicker than Olympic 5000m record & the first half would have won 3 of the 5 previous Olympic 5000m finals

— Athletics Weekly (@AthleticsWeekly) August 12, 2016

@SITimLayden the performance was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

— Josh Cox (@JoshCox) August 12, 2016

Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia just destroyed one of the dirtiest world records in track history. Great.

— Tim Layden (@SITimLayden) August 12, 2016

Almaz Ayana’s 29mins17secs for 10,000m. We can’t accuse because there’s no evidence and we can’t believe because there’s no trust.

— David Walsh (@DavidWalshST) August 12, 2016

TiruneshDibaba, lost a 10k for the first time ever in her career in June. And just got beat by a half lap. hmmm

— David Epstein (@DavidEpstein) August 12, 2016

Congrats to Natasha Wodak (22nd) and Lanni Marchant (25th) for fantastic runs in Rio #GoCanada pic.twitter.com/p0H96F9QMh

— CanadianRunning (@CanadianRunning) August 12, 2016

Ayana Almaz to her pharmacist; pic.twitter.com/io5nHaAq6l

— Rob Watson (@robbiedxc) August 12, 2016

Very proud of @LJM5252 (Lanni Marchant) and @tasha_wodak who ran a season best in a VERY FAST women’s 10,000m final today. #CBCOlympics

— Terry O’Riordan (@tkoriordan) August 12, 2016