Kenya's Manangoi wins world 1500m gold

Kenya’s Elijah Motonei Manangoi celebrates after winning the men’s 1,500m final. Photograph

• Great ending for duo as World Championships end
• Manangoi maintains Kenya’s brilliance

Former champion Asbel Kiprop sacrifices for his compatriots' befitting victory on Sunday night.

Elijah Manangoi ran a tactical race to restore Kenya's pride in the 1,500m race while his training mate, Timothy Cheruiyot, earned his first global medal.

It’s not often that team tactics are used at major championships. It’s even rarer that they work.

Whether it was by luck or design, the Kenyan trio that included Asbel Kiprop in the 1,500m final at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London ran together for much of the race and were rewarded with two out of a possible three medals.

Cheruyiot and Manangoi, who are handled by Bernard Ouma at Rongai Athletics Club, immediately made their way to the front with Chris O’Hare of Great Britain third in the first lap. Defending champion Kiprop finished ninth.

Kiprop, 28, charged forward to join the front runners Cheruyiot and Manangoi over the next lap and the trio stuck together.

Kiprop was hoping for a fourth consecutive title but ran out of steam in the last 200m and could only watch as his teammates raced for top honours.

As the bell sounded for the final lap, Spain’s Adel Mechaal and Bahrain’s Sadik Mikhou had joined Norway's Filip Ingebrigtsen on the heels of the Kenyan leaders. Cheruiyot and Manangoi were moving through the gears in their drive for the line, but Kiprop started to struggle.

The 24-year-old Manangoi overtook his front-running countryman for the win in 3:33.61, his first world title, as Cheruyiot earned silver in 3:33.99.

Ingebrigtsen, who accelerated on the backstretch, passing Kiprop to move into third, earned his first global championships medal in 3:34.53, barely holding off a hard-charging Mechaal, who was fourth in 3:34.71.

It was the third time in the past four World Championships that Kenyan athletes were taking the top two spots in the men’s 1,500m.

“It was a good race and I’m so pleased to be a world champion,” said Manangoi, whose younger brother George won the World U-18 title over the same distance in Nairobi last month.

Prior to the London showpiece, Manangoi had run the season’s fastest of 3:28.80 in the Monaco Diamond League in July.