Paris [France], August 6 (ANI): Ethiopia’s Beatrice Chebet ran all the way to bag the gold in the women’s 5000m event in the ongoing Paris Olympics at Stade de France.
The race was tipped to be the battle between the three fastest women in the event, with defending champion Hassan, going toe-to-toe against the reigning world champion Kipyegon and world record holder Gudaf Tsegay.
Chebet clocked 14:28.56s to seal her place at the top of the podium. Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was set to walk away with silver making it a double podium finish for Ethiopia in the event.
However, she even after becoming the second athlete to cross the line, she was disqualified from the final for obstruction following an incident between her and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay. There was a bit of pushing and shoving between Kipyegon and Tsegay when the final two laps were left.
She finished with a timing of 14:29.60s but her thrilling attempt went in vain following the disqualification.
As a result, the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan’s bronze was upgraded to silver and Italy’s Battocletti who finished fourth won the bronze and earned a place at the podium.
Battocletti set a national record of 14:31.64s to take away the bronze. While the Tokyo 2020 champion, Sifan who secured the second position gave her personal best attempt with a timing of 14:30.61s.
For the majority of the race, Chebet and Kipyegon emerged among the front runners, with Tsegay following closely behind. Hassan spent a good amount of time at the back before gradually moving up the field towards the business end of the event.
While in the women’s 800m final, Keely Hodgkinson clinched the gold medal with a time of 1:56.72s. She finished ahead of Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and Kenya’s Mary Moraa.
Duguma took the silver medal with her personal best timing of 1:57.15s. Moraa settled for the bronze medal by clocking 1:57.42s. (ANI)
