Sopot showdown: Mwangangi bags gold, Obiri silver as meet ends in Poland

BY FEVERPITCH REPORTER 

 

Kenya won gold and silver as the curtains came down on the World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland yesterday.

Former World Junior 1,500m champion Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku won the men’s 3000m gold while Hellen Obiri, could not withstand the blistering pace of Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia as she lost the defence of her 3,000m title to settle for silver.

Expectations were high on the third day, after the first two ended with Kenya missing out on the medals.

However, Ndiku did not disappoint as he denied American Bernard Lagat the chance to inscribe his name in the history of the competition as a fourth time winner to join legendary Haile Gabrselassie of Ethiopia.

Caleb Ndiku clocked seven minutes 54 minutes and 94 seconds, holding off three-time former champion Lagat of the United States, who took silver in 7:55.22. Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel claimed bronze in 7:55.39.

Former Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Augustine Kiprono Choge faded off to ninth place taking 7:57.46. The two wins finally had Kenya on the medal table sitting seventh by the time of going to press.

Two laps to go

Just like he did it in the heats, with two laps to go, the 21-year-old former world junior 1500m champion hit the front and resisted all attempts to dislodge him.

A late charge by Lagat was not enough to slavage a spot in the history book as he settled for the silver medal.

Fight another day

In the women’s 3,000m, Obiri will live to fight another day, as she held on tightly until the final two laps when Genzebe Dibaba pulled away. There was little the World Outdoor 1,500m bronze medallist could do to salvage her title, but only to fend off Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal from taking the silver, a move she successfully accomplished.

Dibaba romped home in 8:55.04 to clinch Ethiopia’s second gold medal of the championship as Obiri raced to the silver in 8:57.72, edging out in the final sprint Jamal to third clocking 8:59.16.

Another Kenyan, Irene Jelagat, could only finish in the fourth place after clocking 9:02.67.

Earlier,Czech Republic’s reigning European indoor and outdoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak significantly improved upon his fifth position in the 2012 edition, which advertised his arrival as a 400m runner having previously concentrated on 200m, to scorch to in victory 45.24.

The 23-year-old took the race by the scruff of the neck from the gun, immediately going into the lead, and was rewarded with the Czech record, becoming the second-fastest European ever over two laps of the indoor track.

He became the first Czech man other than a multi-events exponent to win a gold medal at the championships and the first Czech gold medallist in any event for a decade.