Uganda’s three-time world champion, Joshua Cheptegei, bid his time in the course of the males’s 10,000m ultimate solely to shock everybody by all of a sudden dashing to the entrance with about 500m to go and sustaining one of many longest and strongest sprinting finishes ever seen in a long-distance monitor race to emerge victorious. The world file holder strode away to win his first 10,000m Olympic gold medal in a brand new Olympic file of 26:46.14. Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi took silver in 26:43.44, whereas USA’s Grant Fisher took the bronze medal in 26:43.46. This was Cheptegei’s second Olympic gold medal after he gained the 5,000m in Tokyo.
After some 5000m races in Might, Cheptegei stayed out of the limelight, and nobody might inform what type he was in coming into the Olympic Video games.
This was the primary ultimate on monitor and was essentially the most anticipated occasion on the night of the second day of athletics in Paris.
Selemon Barega, the reigning Olympic Champion; Cheptegei, the 5000m and 10,000m world file holder and a number of world champion; and the in-form Yomif Kejelcha, who holds the world-leading time of 26:31.01, have been all there, craving for Olympic glory.
The distinction between the Ethiopian runners and Cheptegei was that their private finest occasions doubled as their seasonal finest occasions, which was extra correct in portraying their present varieties.
From the beginning of the race, it appeared apparent that the 27:01.17 Olympic file set by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele on the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was going to be beneath risk.
France’s Yann Schrub took the lead simply after the gun, to the delight of the house crowd, who cheered him on and created some pleasure within the stadium. However earlier than a kilometre was finished, Barega took the lead and injected the tempo, crossing the mark in 2:43.1. His countryman, Kejelcha, adopted him intently.
As they approached the 3km mark, three Ethiopians, led by Berihu Aregawi, have been within the lead. It was quick, and a single file had already shaped behind them.
They crossed the 5000m mark in an unbelievable 13:23.2, Aregawi taking the lead from Kejelcha.
After 6000m, the Ethiopians separated, and Canada’s Ahmed Mohammed moved into second place behind Kejelcha and forward of Kenya’s Bernard Kibet. Barega got here to the entrance once more at round 8000m, and for a second, the pack began to get crowded once more because the tempo slowed a bit. Kejelcha surged, the remaining reacted, and he slowed down once more. It was as if nobody was prepared and able to make the primary transfer.
That was the second when the whole lot performed into the palms of Cheptegei, who continues to be the best runner to ever come out of Uganda.
