Four Kenyans Make it into Saturday's 5000m women's Finals

Budapest 

Thursday, 24 August, 2023

McCreadie Andias 

It was quite a charmful day for Kenya as four of its athletes made it into the 5000M women's finals after a charged semi-final heat last night. 

Three-time 1500m gold medallist Faith Kipyegon led the charge for the Kenyans, finishing second in her heat in 14:32.31 Behind her biggest contender and dutch super sprinter Sifan Hassan who won the semi finals heats after just finishing third on the 1500M women's Finals a day before. 

Just behind Kipyegon was another Kenyan name Lilian Rengeruk who fell to the track on the final bend but managed to pick herself up to finish in fifth place in 14:36.61 and still qualify for the final.

“It was a tactical race, but it was fine,” said Kipyegon. “It is all about the medal. It was good to get out and run again after the 1 500m final. The medal is not there yet, so I need to keep looking forwards.

Speaking about her rivalry with Dutch Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, Kipyegon added: “I've been competing with her for a long time. She is a good friend of mine. We push each other to the limit. It's perfect. That's sport. She's amazingly talented doing all the events. It's not easy but she pushes herself to the limit.”

Kipyegon’s compatriot Beatrice Chebet, who won the first of the 5 000m heats in 14:57.70, added: “I came here targeting the podium. The competition is very strong but I believe in myself. I will run my best. When I was running the last 200m, I realised I still had some energy to fight and that is why I speeded up to take the lead.”

Margaret Kepkemboi will also be anticipating to put her name on the Global chats and find her place among big names like Kipyegon. 

Other Africans who made their way into the finals were Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay who is also the 5000M world defending champion.

Tsegay, who took 10 000m gold in Budapest last Saturday and who finished second behind Chebet in the 5 000m heat in 14:57.72.

“The 5 000m is my favourite distance. I completed only half of my plan when I won gold over 10 000m. I was ready for a very slow race today with a huge sprint over the last lap because I wanted to save as much energy as possible for the final. So I did not want to follow this young girl who paced our race from the beginning. She is very brave and did her job very well. I am going to prepare another tactic for the final with my coach. The main thing now is to take rest and recover well.”

The highly anticipated finals are set for Saturday.