Paris Olympics: Glorious Chebet wins double gold

Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet is undoubtedly the woman of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after securing a double gold with an emphatic victory at the women’s 10,000m final on Friday night.

The 24-year-old, who on Monday won her first gold medal at the games in the 5,000m, produced one of her now familiar trade-mark kicks to skip away to a historic win in the 25-lap distance, clocking 30:43.25.

The win was Kenya’s first in the women’s 10,000m event since its inception at the 1988 Games in Seoul.

Overall, you’ll have to go back to 1968 to find the last time a Kenyan (Naftali Temu) won the distance at the Summer Games.

At the end of a tactical race at the Stade de France, Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, who was fourth in the 5000m, finished strong in a national record of 30:43.35 to secure the silver, as Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands ran 30:44.12 for bronze – her second medal of that colour in Paris after her third-place finish in the 5000m.

Kenya's duo of Margaret Kipkemboi and Lilian Kasait came in fourth (30:44.58) and fifth (30:45.04) respectively, providing further evidence to a wonderfully calculated race that on the night went to Chebet, who is having a dream of a debut at the Olympic Games.

Chebet completes historic double

Heading to the women's 10,000m final, all eyes were undoubtedly on the distance's world record holder Chebet as she staked her claim to win another gold at the Olympic Games, following what had been an impressive kick to the finish line on Monday to upstage fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon.

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In true Chebet fashion, the Commonwealth gold medalist made herself comfortable at the front-end of the pack, carrying with her the collective expectation of a country hoping for a second gold medal in Paris, and also a Kenyan duo of Kipkemboi and Kasait, who would help execute a race that depicted more of a slow-burner waiting to explode at the dying moments.

Such was the case, as no athlete did enough to take hold of proceedings, with early leader Rahel Daniel of Eritrea calling it quits with only seven minutes ran and with over 19 laps to go.

The proceeding laps saw leaders take their chances, then almost immediately hit the brakes, ushering in a new athlete to take command.

Japan's Yuka Takashima was one of them to do so, followed by Kipkemboi, then an ambitious Daisy Jepkemei of Kazakhstan, who to her credit did increase the race pace, but to her own undoing, as she faded off as soon as she started, with Australia's Lauren Ryan taking over with 12 laps to go.

As the lead kept changing hands, the only constant was the comfortable Chebet, who was hung in there behind the leaders, closely keeping her eyes on the track to avoid any collisions with the woman upfront.

Perhaps another constant was Hassan, who opted to run her race at the back, and only accelerating when the pace went up a notch, to avoid being dis-attached from the lead pack.

Ethiopia's Tsigie Gebreselama then showed intent with seven laps to go, but the move was shut by Kipkemboi and Kasait, who looked to somehow shield Chebet from a lurking Ethiopian attack that also had Gudaf Tsegay and Tesfay Fotyen smelling blood.

The Kenyans took a 1-2-3 formation with 800m to go, and upon hitting the bell, looked to be on-course for a podium sweep.

Kasait was the first to fall from the sprint to the finish line, before Kipkemboi soon gave way for Italy's Battocletti and a surging Hassan.

At the front this time however, was Chebet sprinting away to victory, and with the performance that will long live in Kenyan hearts and minds.