Ugandan world record holder in the 10,000m, Joshua Cheptegei, became world champion in the distance for the second time on Sunday in 27 min 27 sec 43 in Eugene (Oregon). The Ugandan beat Kenyan Stanley Mburu and his compatriot Jacob Kiplimo.
While we were expecting a duel between the reigning world champion and the Olympic champion in Tokyo, Selemon Barega, the Ethiopian broke down in the home stretch and finally took 5th place. Cheptegei, silver medalist in Japan, was able to get his revenge on Sunday, showing that he was the boss of the distance.
After a controlled first part of the race, the pace gradually increased until the last 1,000 meters where the Ugandan accelerated. Initially followed by Barega, the latter was beaten in the last hundred meters for the podium.
“It’s a typical championship race where everyone plays their best. The most important thing is to win the gold medal,” said Cheptegei after his victory.
He will have the opportunity to achieve the double with the 5,000 m (series Thursday, final next Sunday), the distance over which he was crowned Olympic champion in Japan last summer.
The young Kenyan Mburu (22) created a surprise by taking silver to validate a first international podium ahead of Kiplimo (21), Olympic bronze medalist on the 25 laps.
Gressier 11th
Jimmy Gressier hoped to enter the top 10, aware that reaching the podium would be complicated. The Frenchman was dropped when the race got carried away and finally took 11th place in 27’44”55, far from his personal best. “I’m not happy with the weather, it’s not my level. It’s a championship race, I had good legs, I wasn’t particularly tough. But I arrive a little mentally tired, so when I have to hurt myself I can’t do it, explained the Northerner on France Télévisions. I learn I am very young, I arrived on the distance this year. I’m lucky to be able to take part in such competitions. »
Second European behind the Belgian Isaac Kimeli, the objective of the multi-medal winner in Europe cross, is especially on the 5000 m and 10,000 m of the European Championships in Munich (August 15-21) as he recalled. “I will be ready for the European Championships, I want to win. I know that I am capable of doing great things at European level”.
Andersen crowned with the hammer
In the absence of three-time defending Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk through injury, Brooke Andersen won her first major hammer throw title on Sunday.
The American won very clearly with a throw of 78.96m, ahead of the Canadian Camryn Rogers (75.52m) and her compatriot, Janee Kassanavoid (74.86m).
The 26-year-old Californian thrower took control of the contest on the fourth try and sent her last three throws beyond 77m.
She brings to the United States their third gold medal of these Worlds, the first in history disputed on American soil, after Fred Kerley in the 100m and Chase Ealey in the shot put.
Poland’s Wlodarczyk, three-time reigning Olympic champion and four-time world champion (2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017), has given up the trip to the US northwest due to a muscle contusion on a thigh suffered in mid-June while continuing a man who had just tried to steal his car.