Look: When UAE's Golden Girl Alia Mohammed Saeed Ruled 10,000-Metre Race At 2014 Asian Games

With cunning tactics and brilliant skills, Alia Saeed Mohammed, then 23, won the gruelling 10,000m women's final to give the UAE its first gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games 11 years ago today, September 27.

The Ethiopian-born Emirati made history for the country in athletics. Her personal best of 31 minutes and 51.86 seconds in Incheon was only less than 10 seconds off the all-time meet mark. Her victory gave the UAE its second medal at the 17th Asian Games 2014, after Sheikh Juma bin Dalmook Al Maktoum won bronze medal in the double trap shooting event two days earlier.

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Alia was brilliant with her tactics. As Khaleej Times reported, she stayed in pace in a pack of six runners. But later on, after lying in third place behind the Bahraini, Chinese and Japanese aspirants, Alia led a breakaway trio with five laps remaining and maintained her lead to secure the gold. She comfortably finished ahead of China's Ding Changqin and Japan's Ayumi Hagiwara, who settled for silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Speaking to journalists after the race, the triumphant Emirati track star said:“This is the most awesome day of my life. I am so, so happy to have two achievements on a single day. First I have won my first-ever Asian gold medal and to do this with a personal best time is just so amazing.”

Ahmed Al Kamali, then UAE Athletics Association President, beamed with pride and said:“I have made a promise and we are just beginning to fulfill this promise. One medal [received] and we have two more to go in the next few days of competition.”

It was a glorious day for the UAE as the athletics team went to Incheon packed with highly experienced young women's distance running duo of Alia and her teammate Betlhem Desalegn, who is also a Ethiopian-born Emirati middle-distance runner, along with 400m exponent Saud Abdul Karim and veteran discus thrower Saber Bayaha.

In the following years, Alia continued her dominance in the running field. She won another gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in 2015 and took the Silver two years later at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships.

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