BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, July 30-August 07 — Four years ago, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei took a Commonwealth Games 5000/10,000 double, but with the ’22 WC champion giving Birmingham a miss, it was the turn of his younger compatriot Jacob Kiplimo to take home two gold medals.
Benefiting from both events being run as straight finals, Kiplimo twice came home ahead of Kenyan rivals thanks to his superior sprint speed.
He waited until just before entering the homestraight for the last time over 25 laps of the track before going through the gears and overtaking Daniel Simiyu, eventually winning 27:09.19–27:11.26.
It was much closer to home in the 5000 but Kiplimo just edged past Nicholas Kipkorir and Jacob Krop in the last couple of meters before stopping the clock in 13:08.08 with the Kenyan pair just a few hundredths in arrears.
Two of the five men’s Games records to fall came in events which could boast the classy fields, which was not always the case across the board.
The javelin had 2-time world champion Anderson Peters in action, as well as several other javelin luminaries, but the Grenadian was one of several Eugene champions to be unable to replicate their success across the Atlantic — the only ’22 WC winners to also succeed in Birmingham were Nigeria’s 100H WR holder Tobi Amusan and women’s JT gold medalist Kelsey-Lee Barber.
Pakistan’s WC 5th-placer Arshad Nadeem opened 284-9 (86.81) and then improved to 295-10 (88.00) in the 3rd round.
Peters found his groove by sending his implement out to 290-10 (88.64) but his lead lasted barely 2 minutes before Nadeem became just the second Asian athlete to throw over 90 meters when he reached 295-10 (90.18).
With no improvement from anyone in the top 5 in the last round, Nadeem become Pakistan’s first Commonwealth gold medalist since ’62.
Australia’s Wisconsin alum Olli Hoare was bitterly disappointed to crash out in the Eugene semis but bounced back to win a thrilling 1500 final in a 3:30.12 PR.
In a stunning battle for the medals down the homestraight — after 800 had been reached in 1:51.1 and 1200 in 2:49.0 with the pace being forced by Kenya’s ’19 WC winner Timothy Cheruiyot — Hoare prevailed ahead of another five men under 3:32, with Cheruiyot 2nd in 3:30.21 and Britain’s world champion Jake Wightman 3rd in 3:30.53.
The previous meet record had stood since ’74 and was Filbert Bayi’s former WR of 3:32.16. Fittingly, the Tanzanian legend was on hand to present the medals.
Jereem Richard reduced the 200’s meet record to 19.80 and added to his medal collection in the very last event on the track at the Games when he anchored Trinidad to 4×4 victory in 3:01.29 to join Kiplimo as a double champion.
However, the men’s 4×4 was weakened by the absence of a number of leading countries including England and Australia who did not enter teams owing to an unpopular quota system which limited the size of teams and adversely affected the “bigger nations.”
COMMONWEALTH MEN’S MEDALISTS
100(-0.9): 1. Ferdinand Omanyala (Ken) 10.02; 2. Akani Simbine (SA) 10.13; 3. Yupun Abeykoon (SrL) 10.14.
200(1.1): 1. Jereem Richards (Tri) 19.80 PR; 2. Zharnel Hughes (GB) 20.12; 3. Joseph Amoah (Gha) 20.49.
400: 1. Muzala Samukonga (Zam) 44.66 NR; 2. Matthew Hudson-Smith (GB) 44.81.
800: 1. Wycliffe Kinyamal (Ken) 1:47.52; 2. Peter Bol (Aus) 1:47.66; 3. Ben Pattison (GB) 1:48.25.
1500: 1. Olli Hoare (Aus) 3:30.12 PR; 2. Timothy Cheruiyot (Ken) 3:30.21; 3. Jake Wightman (GB) 3:30.53
St: 1. Abraham Kibiwot (Ken) 8:11.15; 2. Avinash Sable (Ind) 8:11.20 NR; 3. Amos Serem (Ken) 8:16.83.
5000: 1. Jacob Kiplimo (Uga) 13:08.08; 2. Nicholas Kipkorir (Ken) 13:08.19; 3. Jacob Krop (Ken) 13:08.48.
10,000: 1. Kiplimo 27:09.19; 2. Daniel Simiyu (Ken) 27:11.26 PR; 3. Kibiwott Kandie (Ken) 27:20.34 PR.
110H(0.9): 1. Rasheed Broadbell (Jam) 13.08 PR; 2. Shane Brathwaite (Bar) 13.30; 3. Andy Pozzi (GB) 13.37.
400H: 1. Kyron McMaster (BVI) 48.93; 2. Jaheel Hyde (Jam) 49.78; 3. Alastair Chalmers (GB) 49.97.
Mar: 1. Victor Kiplangat (Uga) 2:10:55; 2. Alphonce Felix (Tan) 2:12:29; 3. Michael Githae (Ken) 2:13:16.
10,000W: 1. Evan Dunfee (Can) 38:36.37 PR; 2. Declan Tingay (Aus) 38:42.33 PR; 3. Sandeep Kumar Sangwan (Ind) 38:49.21 PR.
4 x 100: 1. England 38.35 (Efoloko, Hughes, Mitchell-Blake, Edoburun); 2. Trinidad 38.70 (Elcock, Harrison, Benjamin, Greaux); 3. Nigeria 38.81 (Onwuzurike, Ashe, Akintola, Ekevwo).
4 x 400: 1. Trinidad 3:01.29 (St. Hillaire, Guevara, Cedenio, Richards); 2. Botswana 3:01.85 (Scotch, Ngozi, Pesela, Ndori); 3. Kenya 3:02.41 (Mukhobe, Nyangau, Ryan, Mweresa).
Field Events
HJ: 1. Hamish Kerr (NZ) 7-4½ (2.25); 2. Brandon Starc (Aus) 7-4½; 3. Tejaswin Shankar (Ind) 7-3¼ (2.22).
PV: 1. Kurtis Marschall (Aus) 18-8¼ (5.70); 2. Adam Hague (GB) 18-2½ (5.55); 3. Harry Coppell (GB) 18-½ (5.50).
LJ: 1. LaQuan Nairn (Bah) 26-6¼ (8.08); 2. Murali Sreeshankar (Ind) 26-6¼; 3. Jovan van Vuuren (SA) 26-5½ (8.06).
TJ: 1. Eldhose Paul (Ind) 55-10½w (17.03); 2. Abdulla Aboobacker (Ind) 55-10¼ (17.02); 3. Jah-Nhai Perinchief (Ber) 55-6¼ (16.92).
SP: 1. Tom Walsh (NZ) 73-½ (22.26); 2. Jacko Gill (NZ) 71-10¼ (21.90) PR; 3. Scott Lincoln (GB) 67-6 (20.57).
DT: 1. Matt Denny (Aus) 220-8 (67.26) PR; 2. Lawrence Okoye (GB) 213-2 (64.99); 3. Traves Smikle (Jam) 211-10 (64.58).
HT: 1. Nick Miller (GB) 250-9 (76.43); 2. Ethan Katzberg (Can) 250-6 (76.36) PR; 3. Alexandros Poursanidis (Cyp) 242-8 (73.97).
JT: 1. Arshad Nadeem (Pak) 295-10 (90.18) NR; 2. Anderson Peters (Grn) 290-10 (88.64; 3. Julius Yego (Ken) 281-2 (85.70).
Dec: 1. Lindon Victor (Grn) 8233 (10.76, 24-5¾/7.46, 50-9½/15.48, 6-8/2.03, 49.51, 14.89, 152-8/46.54, 15-5/4.70, 213-9/65.16, 4:51.60); 2. Dan Golubovic (Aus) 8197; 3. Cedric Dubler (Aus) 8030. ◻︎