Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Beatrice Chebet made it a memorable night for Kenya at the world championships on Saturday as they produced outstanding performances to win the men’s 800 metres and women’s 5,000m respectively.
Just over a year ago the duo left Paris as Olympic champions, while Chebet won both the 5,000 and 10,000m golds.
On Saturday, in front of over 58,000 spectators at Japan’s National Stadium, she achieved the same feat, beating her idol Faith Kipyegon to become only the third woman to do the distance double at a world championships.
Wanyonyi’s blisteringly fast race was watched by retired Kenyan 800m legend David Rudisha, who sat beside another man who knows a thing or two about the two-lap race, two-time Olympic silver medallist and World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe.
Rudisha produced one of the all-time great Olympic performances when he broke the world record to win gold at the 2012 London Games.
There was never any question of that happening in Saturday’s final, Wanyonyi winning in a championship record time of 1min 41.86sec.
However, Rudisha has all but anointed the 21-year-old former cattle herder as the man most likely to set a new record.
“Maybe I will start to think about the world record,” Wonyonyi said.
“I also want to win gold in Los Angeles in 2028. That’s the biggest goal.
“I met David Rudisha yesterday. He told me just to take a rest and focus, and everything is possible.”
Chebet enjoys a close friendship with Kipyegon, who is six years her senior, but on the track she is not over-awed by one of the legends of athletics.
Indeed Chebet has every chance of being accorded similar status, given her increasingly impressive gold medals tally.
Kipyegon, despite her disappointment at failing to repeat her world 1,500m/5000m double from the 2023 Budapest championships, embraced Chebet warmly at the finish.
“Going home with two gold medals makes me really happy,” said Chebet.
“Me and Faith have been friends for a long time. We motivate each other and I am really pleased with our performances.”
Kipyegon, who retained the 1,500m title earlier in the week, said Chebet “is the best”.
“I’m now going to have some sleep and go back home and enjoy some time with my daughter,” she added.
– ‘My wedding ring’ –
The women’s 4x100m relay final on Sunday may come to be remembered more for the handing over of the baton from 38-year-old Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to the new queen of the sprints, America’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden.
However, Fraser-Pryce will hope to bow out after almost two decades at the top by denying Jefferson-Wooden a third gold medal, which would equal her achievement in Moscow in 2013.
The USA men’s 4x100m relay teams have gained a reputation down the years for fouling up baton exchanges — the latest example came at the Olympics last year.
This time though it was not them but their great rivals Jamaica who came up short as Ryiem Forde’s handover to 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson on the anchor leg went awry.
The two did not exchange a word as they walked the 90 metres or so to the line in a heat won by Olympic champions Canada.
Anna Hall exchanged world silver for gold in the heptathlon, but it was Kate O’Connor’s performance that caught the eye as the 24-year-old took silver, a first ever in the event for Ireland.
In fact, it was just Ireland’s seventh medal in championships history and their first since 2013.
“I knew that I was always going to be in with a shot of a medal,” said the Northern Ireland-born O’Connor.
“But it’s the one thing being in with a shot and another actually going out and doing it.”
Caio Bonfim will be bringing a gold medal home to Brazil, winning the men’s 20km walk after finishing second in the 35km walk last Saturday.
However, the 34-year-old will be returning home without one item he left Brazil with.
“I lost my wedding ring in the third kilometre. I believe my wife will be OK because I won today,” he said.
