NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 21 – The Kenyan trio of Margaret Chelimo, Beatrice Chebet and Gloria Kite all qualified for the final of the women’s 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships early Thursday morning.
While Chelimo, bronze medalist in the women’s 10,000m and Chebet qualified automatically from Heat One, Kite qualified as one of the non-automatic qualifiers after her time in Heat Two where she finished sixth was enough to earn her a ticket to Saturday’s final.
Chelimo and Chebet finished third and fourth in the opening Heat.
In the opening Heat, Chelimo and Chebet, the 2018 World Under-20 Champion ran with reserved energy, just ensuring they were within the top five all through the race.
With two laps to go, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Dawit Seyaum began showing intent and the Kenyan duo stuck on their necks. The leading pack also included Americans Karissa Schweizer and Emily Infeld.
At the bell, the six were jostling for top spot and it was the Ethiopian duo which kept the lead.
At the home straight, Chelimo and Chebet kicked in to ease off the Americans and ensure they finished in the top four. Chebet timed 14:53.34 for third while Chelimo went through with a time of 14:53.45.
Tsegay won the race while Seyaum was second.
heat Two was won by Ethiopia’s Lesenbet Gidey, winner of the 10,000m just two days ago. The Ethiopian clocked 14.52.27 to keep her double dream alive while Kenyan Caroline Kipkirui, now running for Kazakhstan came second.
Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands finished third to also automatically qualify.
Kite finished sixth in 14:53.62 and benefited from the fast Heat as she went through as one of the five non automatic qualifiers.
The Kenyan could not respond to a final lap kick despite being in third pace for most of the race.
