Olympics: Kenyans 'shown dust' in 10000m final

By Peter Ochieng

And just like that, Kenya's wait for the first Olympic Games gold medal in the 10000m race continues.

The last Kenyan athlete to win gold in the discipline was the late Naftali Temu back in 1968.

Kenyans were banking on Daniel Mateiko, Nicholas Kipkorir and Benard Kibet to finally bring gold home from the ongoing Paris Olympics, but that was not to be on Friday night.

World champion, Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei raced to victory timing an Olympic record of 26:43:14.

That beat the previous best of 27:07.17 set by Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Bekele is in France as part of Ethiopia's marathon team.

Kibet came 5th, Kipkorir finished 11th while Mateiko came 14th denying Kenya the first medal in Paris.

Earlier, rising star Lilian Odira and world silver medalist Mary Moraa qualified for the 800m semifinals, after nerve breaking performance in qualifier heats.

However, Vivian Chebet fell short. All is however not lost for her.

She will return to action on Saturday to contest in the repechage after failing to finish in the top three automatic slots.

Chebet finished fifth in heat three, timing 1:59.90 after failing to dig some gas for the homestretch.

Faith Kipyegon, Margret Chelimo and Beatrice Chebet booked slots in the 5000m final after fantastic performances in the semifinal heats.

Kenya's 4×400M Mixed Relay team gave its best but finished at position 7.

David Kayanak, Veronica Mutua, Boniface Mweresa and Mercy Chebet made up the relays team.

Team USA emerged victorious.