OSLO, NORWAY, May 30 — Light rain didn’t keep the audience in sold-out Bislett Stadium from witnessing impressive displays of pre-Olympic fitness, prime among them the No. 2 ever run at 5000 and thrilling battles over the 400H (local fans not so happy) and the event-concluding 1500 (local fans thrilled).
The 5000 started off ambitiously, with the pacing lights set at a 12:41 clip. Yomif Kejelcha led a crew of top names right behind the rabbits, as they hit the first kilometer in 2:33.13 and the second in 5:07.05 (2:33.92). As they passed 3000 in 7:41.05, Kejelcha led his countryman Hagos Gebrhiwet with Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo close. By that point, WR holder Joshua Cheptegei had already lost touch with the lead group, as had Guatemala’s Luis Grijalva.
Kejelcha, 26, burned through the next kilo in 2:30.81, but was unable to shake Gebrhiwet. A lap later he looked over his shoulder; his countryman was still there. Finally near the end of the penultimate lap (a 59.62 that left the pacing lights behind), Gebrhiwet shot to the lead and instantly put a gap on Kejelcha. It never got closer. The 30-year-old road 5K world champion, who hasn’t scored a medal on the track in 8 years, blistered the final circuit in 54.99 to cross the line in 12:36.73, missing Cheptegei’s WR by just 1.37.
Behind him, Kejelcha held on for a PR 12:38.95 (No. 4 ever), and Kiplimo closed in a PR 12:40.96 (No. 8). In a parade of speed, 13 in total broke 13:00, with 6 national records falling and best-ever-marks for places 2–3 and 7–13.
In classic Ethiopian understatement, perhaps compounded by the translation, Gebrhiwet said, “The time I achieved is very nice… The conditions, the crowd were great and it was a very fast race, not easy for me but it went going very well.”
The crowd, many of them festooned in Norwegian red, white & blue, eagerly anticipated the first 400H race of the year for national hero Karsten Warholm. It was clear he would have his hands full, with ’22 world champion Alison dos Santos already having run sub-47.
Warholm started in 7, Dos Santos in 5, with Kyron McMaster in between. As expected, Warholm got out like lightning, but the shocking part was that the Brazilian pulled even by hurdle 5. Over the turn Warholm edged slightly ahead, but dos Santos came back, passing him at the final hurdle while the Norwegian…
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