Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda resisted the Ethiopian team’s tactics to win gold in the men’s Olympic 10,000 meters at the Stade de France.
The three-time world champion clocked an Olympic record 26 minutes, 43.14 seconds for victory on Friday.
Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi beat American Grant Fisher by two hundredths of a second and took silver in 26:43.44.
The world record holder added the Olympic 10,000 meters title to his remarkable achievement to win the first track gold of the Games.
The Ugandan, who won silver in Tokyo and gold in the 5,000 meters, produced devastating results in the last 600 meters and his finishing time was 18 seconds behind Kenenisa Bekele’s 2008 Olympic record.
Aregawi, who was part of a three-front Ethiopian group almost from the start, finished well.
A group of 13 athletes ran the last two-thirds of the race together and, surprisingly, they all finished in under 27 minutes.
The first wave came after just two laps of the 25-lap race, with defending champion Selemon Barega and Ethiopian teammate Yomif Kejelcha accelerating to split the field.
The 25-strong field dissipated, but all runners held on.
Aregawi took his turn after Kejelcha as the Ethiopian trio set the pace in front of a raucous, near-capacity crowd of 69,000 at the Stade de France in perfectly hot conditions.
Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo saw their team’s tactics take a hit when Martin Magengo Kiprotich lost pace early on.
Aregawi and Kejelcha picked up the pace again halfway through the stage, the main field now reduced to 15.
Barega was back in command with 10 laps to go, with Canadian Mohammed Ahmed and Kenyan Benard Kibet making their way to sit on Kejelcha’s shoulder.
As Cheptegei and Fisher advanced through a crowded group, Kejelcha was again on hand to provide a boost of acceleration.
In the last kilometer, Aregawi broke into a sprint, but the race promised a pulsating finish as the group of 12 hung on.
Just before the bell rang for the final 400 meters, Cheptegei charged to the front and the race to the finish line began.
Ahmed followed and Fisher fell off the pace but made a remarkable comeback for the medal.
However, there was no coup de grace for Barega as Cheptegei held on for victory in the first medal race at France’s national stadium.
Barega finished seventh in 26:44.48, one place behind Kejelcha, with Ahmed fourth and Kibet fifth.
USA sets new world record in 4×400 mixed relay
Earlier, on the purple track, the USA broke its own world record in the 4×400 mixed relay in the opening heats, crossing the finish line in three minutes and 7.41 seconds in a festive atmosphere.
They set the previous mark of 3:08.80 at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
Team USA led midway through the second lap with a classic performance, overcoming a fast field in the opening heat in which four national records were broken as well as the world mark.
“I always knew we would run fast and we talked about how it would take a record to win a medal,” said American Shamier Little. “It took a record to win our preliminary.”
The French team was favored by a partisan crowd, holding off Belgium (3:10.74) and Jamaica (3:11.06) to finish second in 3:10.60 in the rarely contested event.
The crowd had to be silenced as they chanted for the French team on the first day of the athletics program at the Stade de France and erupted into a loud roar as France took a small lead.
Little advanced to the USA, however, and Bryce Deadmon extended the lead.
The Americans were eager to avoid the drama of three years ago, when they were disqualified from the Olympic final — and later reinstated due to an official’s error — before finally winning bronze.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
