Kenyan 10,000m world record holder Beatrice Chebet was crowned 5,000m Olympic champion on Monday evening in 14 min 28 sec 56 ahead of Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, at the end of a crazy race marked by the disqualification of Faith Kipyegon.
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Beatrice Chebet, twice world medallist, but never at the Olympics, wins her first Olympic title. Behind her, the double Olympic champion in Tokyo (5,000 m, 10,000 m), the Dutch Sifan Hassan, takes the silver medal for the first act of her crazy challenge, before the 10,000 m and the marathon.
Initially in second place, Kenyan double Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon was disqualified for “obstruction”, according to the official results.
With 800m to go, she jostled with the Ethiopian world record holder Gudaf Tsegay, who ended up in 8th place. Kipyegon crossed the mixed zone in tears.
The Italian Nadia Battocletti, initially 4th, takes the bronze medal.
Tsegay and Kipyegon are also both in the 1,500m later this week. Chebet will take the field, she starts in the 10,000m.
For his part, Sifan Hassan completed the first part of his terrible program with a silver medal.
She is the first woman to attempt this gargantuan sequence at the Olympics. However, she will not equal the triple of the Czech Emil Zatopek, crowned in the three events in Helsinki in 1952.