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 in Tokyo and the first such pairing by all-time great Tirunesh Dibaba in ’08.
Said Chebet, who finished in 27.8/57.4/2:06.0, “I’m so happy. To do the 5000 and 10,000 is not something easy. I believed that I can do it. I just wanted to win the 10,000 for my country. My country has never won a gold medal [in the event]. So I said I wanted to be the first woman to win a gold medal in the 10,000m. I know my country is proud of me.”
Battocletti, who added silver to her Euro gold, said she had Achilles and calf pain the morning of the race and couldn’t do her full warmup. “Before the race, I received a text saying: ‘Beware of the old fox because the old fox is never mistaken.’ And then I said to myself: ‘OK, let’s try to be an old fox today.’ I only focused on what was ahead of me without any negative thoughts. The last 100, I started focusing on my breath. Ahead of me, I had one of the quickest girls in the event, who is also a very old fox too. In the last 100, I didn’t think of anything and tried to push as much as possible.”
Said Hassan, who admitted she was already thinking of her marathon test two days later, “I pushed myself but I was a little bit slow. They were better than me. “To finish the marathon is a kind of hell.”
WOMEN’S 10K RESULTS
(August 09)
(temperature 72F/22C; humidity 90%)
1. Beatrice Chebet (Ken) 30:43.25
(3:13.5, 3:05.9 [6:19.4], 3:07.8 [9:27.2], 3:11.2 [12:38.4], 3:11.7 [15:50.1], 3:00.4 [18:50.5], 3:01.6 [21:52.1], 3:05.5 [24:57.6], 3:03.7 [28:01.3], 2:41.9)
(13.8, 27.8, 41.2, 57.4, 2:06.0) (15:50.1/14:53.1);
2. Nadia Battocletti (Ita) 30:43.35 NR
(13.8, 27.7, 42.0, 57.2, 2:05.9) (15:50.4/14:52.9);
3. Sifan Hassan (Neth) 30:44.12
(14.4, 28.4, 42.6, 57.9, 2:06.4) (c15:50.0/14:54.1);
4. Margaret Kipkemboi (Ken) 30:44.58
(15.0, 29.1, 43.5, 58.8, 2:07.5) (15:50.5/14:54.0);
5. Lilian Rengeruk (Ken) 30:45.04
(14.9, 29.5, 44.0, 59.2, 2:07.6) (15:50.9/14:54.1);
6. Gudaf Tsegay (Eth) 30:45.21
(14.9, 29.5, 43.8, 59.2, 2:07.7) (15:51.0/14:54.2);
7. Fotyen Tesfay (Eth) 30:46.93
(16.3, 31.1, 45.7, 60.9, 2:09.7) (15:50.4/14:56.5);
8. Weini Kelati (US) 30:49.98
(15.8, 31.9, 47.6, 63.4, 2:11.9) (15:51.0/14:58.9);
9. Karissa Schweizer (US) 30:51.99
(16.3, 32.5, 48.7, 65.1, 2:14.3) (15:50.5/15:01.4);
10. Tsige Gebreselama (Eth) 30:54.57; 11. Parker Valby (US) 30:59.28 (15:51.1/15:08.1); 12. Sarah Chelangat (Uga) 31:02.37; 13. Lauren Ryan (Aus) 31:13.25; 14. Francine Niyomukunzi (Bur) 31:17.02 PR; 15. Eilish McColgan (GB) 31:20.51; 16. Diane van Es (Neth) 31:25.51; 17. Daisy Jepkemei (Kaz) 31:26.55; 18. Rino Goshima (Jpn) 31:29.48; 19. Haruka Kokai (Jpn) 31:44.03; 20. Klara Lukan (Slo) 31:45.15; 21. Annet Chalangat (Uga) 31:50.41 PR; 22. Yuka Takashima (Jpn) 31:52.07; 23. Megan Keith (GB) 33:19.92;… dnf—Rahel Daniel (Eri), Alessia Zarbo (Fra).
(kilo leaders: Daniel 3:12.01, 6:18.71; Goshima 9:26.94, 12:38.12; Jepkemei 15:49.86; Kipkemboi 18:50.29; Gebreselama 21:51.65; Kipkemboi 24:56.86, 28:01.28)
