By Mutwiri Mutuota and IAAF

The Moncton party continued for Kenya in Canada when David Bett won the country’s fifth gold medal during the 13th World Junior Championships on Saturday night.

Bett was never stretched after breaking away in mid race along with teammate John Kipkoech and easily captured the 5,000m medal in a time of 13:23.76.

Bett, after he and Kipkoech broke clear with six laps of the race remaining, finally claimed the gold medal for Kenya after the domination of their arch-rivals Ethiopia at the last two Championships.

Bett shared the pace with Kipkoech until the final 250m when, sensing Aziz Lahbabi although 30m in arrears was hot on their tail, hit the front to win comfortably.

Kipkoech although tiring and being tracked down by Lahbabi, still had enough energy to finish in a PB 13:26.03 for the Kenyan 1-2 with the Moroccan posting a National record of 13:28.92.

"I was expecting to win," said Bett who was wary of Kipkoech. "I had no real plan, but I knew that my friend was very strong and I decided to run in front of him."

In Bydgoszcz, Poland two years ago, Ethiopia’s Abraham Cherkos denied Matthew Kisorio gold while in Beijing 2006, Tariku Bekele and Cherkos forced Joseph Ebuya to accept bronze.

In other action of the penultimate day of the event that ended last night, Dickson Tuwei booked a place in the men 800m final with a solid front running display to take the first qualifier with a PB 1:47.51.

Qatar’s 1500m bronze medallist Mohammed Al-Garni slipped through on the inside past Samir Dahmani for second (1:48.15), the Frenchman making the cut as a fastest loser (1:48.31).

Men’s steeplechase

Apart from that event, other medals expected on final day for Kenya are in the men’s 3000m steeplechase where defending champion, Jonathan Muia Ndiku and Albert Kiptoo featured as well as women 1500m medal race with World Youth champion, Nelly Chebet and Nancy Chepkwemoi.

As a result of the Bett-Kipkoech 1-2, Kenya retained her overall lead on the medal standings with a tally of 11 including five gold, three silver and three bronze.

Meanwhile, Belarusia’s Katsiaryna Artsiukh maintaining faith in her ability on a windy afternoon in the Stade de Moncton, lowered her World leading 400m hurdles time for the year to 56.16.

But despite eventually winning by a clear second, the victory wasn’t that straightforward as Evonne Britton and Vera Rudakova’s highly motivated displays saw them clear leaders coming into the home straight.

However, Artsiukh, producing a blazing finish coming off the last bend, managed to put a second of daylight between herself and Rudakova, with Britton pushed down to third position.

Artsiukh admitted after finally getting past Britton and Rudakova in her sights:

"I had my doubts if I could overtake her down the final stretch, but I just kept pushing and I am very happy that I finished first."

Rudakova the World Youth champion who had led for almost the entire race until Artsiukh late burst, caught her US rival 10m from the line to clinch second by 0.16 in a PB 57.16 with Britton also running the fastest time of her career.