Chelangat's power kick delivers gold for Kenya in Under-20 meet
Athletics
By
Isaac Kalua Green
| Aug 03, 2022
Kenya started its world title defence in Cali, Colombia on a high note as Betty Chelangat struck the first gold with compatriot Nancy Cherop clinching bronze medal in the women's 3,000m as the World Athletics Under-20 Championships started on Monday.
Kenya's Chelangat produced a powerful display to take the gold medal with a killer kick on the back straight, moving away from her two pursuers: Ethiopia's Tsiyon Abebe and her compatriot Cherop.
Chelangat stayed strong all the way to the finish, crossing the line in 9:01.03 ahead of Abebe (9:03.85) and Cherop (9:05.98).
After an army-style salute to the crowd, Chelangat dropped to her knees, raised her arms in celebration, then clasped them in thankful prayer.
"I train hard, and that's why I win," said Chelangat, who is based in Iten under the guidance of coach John Litei.
"I waited until three laps remaining, then I saw that I had enough left. I thank God and also my coach."
As for what the future holds? "I want to represent my country and run in the Olympic Games," she said.
Abebe was pleased with her silver, saying: "This is the first time I've gotten to represent my country. Of course, I wanted to get gold, which didn't work out, but I am incredibly happy."
Cherop paid tribute to her coach, Peter Bii, saying she was "expecting to win the race" but was content with bronze.
At the same time, Kenya lost the men's 5,000m title with Samuel Kibathi falling down a few metres to the line in frantic effort to try and win bronze as his compatriot Nelson Mandela finished eighth.
The race was won by Ethiopia's Addisu Yihune who showed the vast range of gears synonymous with so many of his countrymen when powering to gold in the 5000m in 14:03.05, but Eritrea showed signs of a rising tide by taking silver and bronze through Merhawi Mebrahtu (14:03.33) and Habtom Samuel (14:03.67).
The race began at a relative jog, with 3000m reached in 8:45.57 - comically slow for athletes of this calibre. From there, things slowly started to heat up with pre-race favourite Yihune moving to the front and the fourth kilometre covered in a steady 2:45.27.
The lead changed many times in the laps that followed and there were nine men in the front pack with just over a lap to run.
But Yihune simply had too much for his rivals when every one of them went for broke in the last 200m, avenging his fourth-place finish in last year's world U20 5000m final.
Yihune is coached by Tewodros Hailu, the husband of Ethiopian great Meseret Defar, and he said he was "incredibly happy" with the title.