Olympic Women’s 10,000 — Chebet Third To Win 5K/10 Double

IN A RACE in many ways reminiscent of the 5000 that had taken place 4 days earlier, 24-year-old Beatrice Chebet kicked her way to her second gold of the Games with a sizzling finish to a 30:43.25. It marked the first-ever Kenyan gold in the 10K.

Twenty-five women toed the line on a balmy night in the Stade de France. The race started ultra-slow until Japan’s Rino Goshima came to the rescue with 75-second laps. Eventually the Kenyan squad opted to move up and after 4K there were a variety of East African faces taking turns leading.

A bit of a slowdown before 5K caused the field to bunch tightly as the leaders crossed in 15:38.4. The 78-second pace caused the race to get livelier as Australian Lauren Ryan took the lead for a while and then Kazakhstan’s Daisy Jepkemei. The tempo dropped to 71 and the pack finally started to thin. By 7K there were 13 left in contention led by Ethiopia’s Tsige Gebreselama. At the tail end of the group were the 3 Americans, followed by defending champion Sifan Hassan on the second leg of her quest for three medals.

Another slowdown at 8K (24:57.0) brought American Parker Valby to the front to share the lead for a lap with Kipkemboi before slipping back. At 9K, Hassan started making her way forward.

The pack numbered 12 at that point but by the time the bell rang, there were 8 left, Valby and teammate Weini Kelati just having slipped off the back. Kipkemboi led, followed by teammate Lilian Rengeruk and Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay. Chebet moved up and on the backstretch it was Kenyans running 1-2-3 closely followed by Italy’s Euro champ Nadia Battocletti. Hassan charged on the outside heading into the final turn but could not overtake the leaders.

Chebet exploded onto the straight, the Italian chasing her hard. As Kipkemboi fell back Hassan moved into bronze position. They held their places to the line, the unheralded Battocletti cutting into Chebet’s margin all the way.

The Kenyan took gold in 30:43.25, with Battocletti a tenth behind in 30:43.35. For Hassan in 30:44.12, the bronze was her fifth career Olympic medal. Kipkemboi (30:44.58) and Rengeruk (30:45.04) took 4th and 5th, with world champion Gudaf Tsegay 6th in 30:45.21. Americans finished in 8-9-11: Kelati (30:49.98), Karissa Schweizer (30:51.99) and Valby (30:59.28).

Chebet’s 5K/10K double followed Hassan’s…