Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey staged a spectacular performance to win Ethiopia’s first gold medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships taking place in Oregon, United States.
The current 10,000m and Half Marathon world record holder outpaced the Kenyan duo of Hellen Obiri and Margaret Chelimo to cross the finishing line in 30:09.94.
Obiri and Chelimo clocked 30:10.02 and 30:10.07 to win silver and bronze respectively in the hotly contested race. They both registered new personal bests.
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Great Britain’s Eilish Mcolgan took command of the exciting race earlier on before Gidey and compatriot Ejjgayehu Taye took the driving seat. Taye and Gidey kept exchanging the lead with the Kenyans not giving them any breathing space.
The epic race was decided in the final lap. Gidey sprinted off in the last 200m but the Kenyans alongside Ethiopian-born Dutch international, Sifan Hassan, did not have any of it.
However, the two time world athletics cross country champion was in a class of her own, narrowly escaping Obiri’s and Chelimo’s onslaught in the final few meters. In the end, Gidey proved to be the strongest amongst the East Africans.
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Hassan, who won the title at the 2019 Doha games, settled for fourth position. Kenya had only two representatives in the race. Sheila Chepkirui failed to travel to Eugene due to visa related issues.
Despite the disappointment, all is not lost for Obiri. The Ngong-based athlete will be seeking to defend her 5000m title later this week.
The 31-year-old who will ditch track for road races at the end of the season will line up in the 5000m heats on July 21. The final is slated for July 24 at 4:25am EAT.
Uganda’s Stella Chesang and Eriteria’s Daniel Rahel both ran national records of 31:01.04 and 31:12:15 respectively in a race described by commentators as the greatest of all time.
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