Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia led all the way to win the women's steeplechase 3000m gold medal with a world record performance at the Beijing Olympic Games on Sunday.

It was Russia's first athletics gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The 30-year-old took a long-standing lead from the very beginning of the race to finish with a time of eight minutes 58.81 seconds, breaking the previous record of 9:01.59 set by herself four years ago and becoming the first woman to run under nine minutes for the distance.

"I have had worst preparation for the race and didn't think about breaking the record before the race," said Samitova-Galkina, "but I had none of them when race began. The spectators were great today, they gave me much support and the track is great, I think that's why I can broke the world record."

Eunice Jepkorir of Kenya trailed by 9.60 seconds to claim the silver medal in 9:07.41. She outsprinted another Russian Ekaterina Volkova in the final 100 meters to catch the medal and broke the African record.

"The Russian took off with three laps to go. I tried to push to my maximum to get in there, but she was just too fast. The last three laps, the pace was too hard, I tried to catch up, but it was just too long, and she was too good," said Jepkorir.

"I focused on my finish the whole race. I tried hard, wishing to be in the medals. I was trying to be the gold medalist, and I am glad that I proved my personal best," said Jepkorir.

Volkova had to settle for the bronze in 9:07.64, but saying that she was happy with the bronze medal.

"I didn't realize I was overtaken at first. A few steps after the Kenyan girl had passed me, I began to realize it, but any way I don't feel it a pity because I got the medal.

"I performed normally, and today I got my second best performance this year. I was fully prepared for today's event, so I was very happy with the result," said Volkova, who won the title at the Osaka world championships last year in Japan with an overwhelming 9:18.24 victory.

The favorites Samitova-Galkina formed a breakaway pack early in the race and extended her leading gap to nearly 40 meters in the last lap. When she crossed the finish line, Samitova-Galkina threw her arms up and put her hands on her head with an easy smile as she smashed the field apart with 1000m past in 2:58.63 and 2000m in 6:01.20.

A distant seventh finisher in Osaka world championships last year, Samitova-Galkina very much remains a prominent force after running 9:08.21 to take this year's Russian title.

Underscoring her impact on the event, Samitova-Galkina has produced six of history's fastest eight performances. She is also expected to contest the latter in Beijing in women's 5000m event.

"I met a lot of difficulties last year and I changed my coach last year which helped me a lot," said Samitova-Galkina. "The new coach changed my tactics during the race and I feel I am much stronger now. Hoping I could get a good results in the 5000 meters event the day after tomorrow."

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2008)