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✳ 10,000m final – 7.25pm
Budapest, Hungary | THE INDEPENDENT | Over the last four years, the combination of Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo has been hard to beat on and off the track.
The two stars have always complemented each other’s tactics, with Kiplimo ensureing Uganda often got the top medal whenever Chepetegei was slow of pace.
Kiplimo did not travel to the World Championships this time because of an injury and Cheptegei, the World 5000m and 10,000m record-holder who is recovering from an injury, will have to pull out his best tactical race, to secure victory.
The World Athletics Federation website previews the race as follows…..
Defending champion Joshua Cheptegei is on the hunt for his third consecutive world 10,000m title.
The world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder has had to overcome injury since last year’s World Championships in Oregon but he returned to medal-winning form at the World Cross Country Championships in February, claiming bronze in Bathurst behind his teammate Jacob Kiplimo and Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi.
Cheptegei made his track comeback at the Diamond League meeting in Florence, finishing fourth in the 5000m, and he raced that distance again in Lausanne, finishing second behind Aregawi after a thrilling clash that produced the sixth- and seventh-fastest 5000m performances of all time.
The 10,000m in Budapest could offer more of the same. While Cheptegei hasn’t contested the 25-lap event yet this season, Aregawi is the world leader thanks to the 26:50.66 he ran to win at Ethiopia’s World Championships Trials in Nerja. Aregawi, the world 5km record-holder who finished seventh in the world 10,000m final last year, beat Olympic champion Selemon Barega by one second in Nerja and the top two this season will clash again in Budapest.
Aregawi, who ran 26:33 in Laredo in March for the second-fastest 10km performance in history, has also improved his 5000m PB this year, running 12:40.45 – a mark that puts him fifth on the world all-time list – to win in Lausanne.
As well as his Olympic win in Tokyo, Barega is the 5000m silver medallist from the 2019 World Championships in Doha and he won the world indoor 3000m title in Belgrade last year. The 23-year-old, who started his year with a cross country win in Elgoibar and was 12th at the World Cross Country Championships, has raced three times on the Diamond League circuit this season. After a runner-up finish in the 3000m in Doha in a PB of 7:27.16 he was ninth and then fifth in the 5000m in Florence and Lausanne, respectively. When it comes to head-to-head 10,000m clashes against his compatriot Aregawi, Barega leads 4-1.
They are joined on the Ethiopian team by Yismaw Dilu, the 17-year-old who claimed third place in the national trial race in 27:08.85, the second-fastest time ever by an U18 athlete.
World half marathon record-holder Kiplimo would also have been a contender, but the 22-year-old – who succeeded his teammate Cheptegei as world cross country champion in February – has withdrawn from the championships due to a hamstring injury sustained in training at the start of August.
US champion Woody Kincaid sits third on this season’s top list thanks to the PB of 27:06.37 he ran to win in California in March, while Canada’s Olympic 5000m silver medallist Mohammed Ahmed, who has claimed top eight spots in the past three world 5000m and 10,000m finals, will also be looking to make an impact.
The Kenyan team features national trials winner Nicholas Kipkorir, who ran his PB of 26:58.97 in 2020. Italy’s European champion Yemaneberhan Crippa returns to the World Championships stage following his eighth-place finish in Doha in 2019.
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SOURCE: Jess Whittington for World Athletics
