NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 24 – Beatrice Chebet, the 2018 World Under-20 Champion, ran with confidence and bravery as she earned Kenya silver in the women’s 5,000m final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday morning.
Chebet, 22, finished second behind Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, timing a season’s best time of 14:46.75 with Tsegay winning her second medal in the Championships after winning silver in the 1500m, timing 14:46.29.
Compatriot Dawit Seyaum sprinted home third for bronze in 14:47.36 while Margaret Chelimo’s sprint for a possible Kenyan 2-3 finish wasn’t successful as she came home fourth in 14:47.71, also a season’s best time for her.
Tsegay, a 1500m specialist was a huge beneficiary of the pedestrian pace in the race and it played in her favour as it reserved a lot of energy in her tank for a final lap dash.
The field remained quite intact for most of the race and with three laps to go, Gidey started showing intent with Chelimo and Chebet sticking on her tails.
With two to go, Hassan, the reigning Olympic champion sprinted to the front as she tried to kick in a bust of pace and open up the field, but the leading pack could not let her go alone.
At the bell, The Dutch lady klicked further but Chebet couldn’t let her open up a gap and Gidey followed suit. Slowly, she began fizzling away and Gidey kicked in her 1500m finishing pace, Chebet following her shadow.
She managed to put in a good gap in the final 50m to win the race as Chebet finished second. Behind them, the battle for third was on with Hassan fizzling away and it was Seyaum who came home for bronze.
Chelimo’s last dash of pace wasn’t enough but she managed to beat Letesenbet Gidey for fourth, the 10,000m champion finishing fifth. The other Kenyan in the race, Gloria Kite, finished 10th out of the 11 starting athletes.
