Fiona O’Keeffe produced a superb performance to claim victory at the USATF 10 Mile Road Championships over the weekend in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

O’Keeffe, who runs professionally for Puma and who’s coached by Alistair Cragg, also claimed a $10,000 gender equalizer bonus as the first athlete, woman or man, to cross the finish line, with the women given a 5:57 head start on the men.

Taking advantage of the cool weather and the opportunity of the extra bonus money, the women’s race got off to a quick start with O’Keeffe and Emily Durgin quickly heading to the front and pushing the pace through the first half of the race. By mile five, the pack was down to just six athletes with O’Keeffe, Durgin being joined by Aliphine Tuliamuk, Ednah Kurgat, Annie Frisbie and Lauren Goss hitting the timing mats in 25:44.

O’Keeffe would continue to push the pace, putting nearly 20 seconds on Annie Frisbie by mile 8 before pulling into the finish line 28 seconds of Frisbie. Her winning time of 51:42 bested Molly Huddle’s course record of 51:44 (2015).