Kenya’s Jeruto Kiptum lead for 5,900 metres of the six kilometre
race but after doing all the hard work and at one stage building up a lead of eight
seconds she succumbed to the faster finish of Ethiopia’s Yimenashu Taye.
Kiptum went through the first
kilometre in 3:09, faster than the senior women were go through the same checkpoint just
over an hour later.
She lead through the successive kilometres in 6:25, 9:50, 13:06 and
16:30. At the halfway point she had a lead of 40 metres. The chasing group of seven
consisted on four of Kiptum’s compatriots and three of their Ethiopian rivals but
with 500 metres to go Taye broke clear started to close the gap over her African rival.
The 19 year old Ethiopian sprinted past her dejected younger rival to
claim the gold medal, covering the course in 19:32, to become the second Ethiopian to win
the junior women’s title. The flagging
Kiptum held on for the silver medal, two seconds in arrears.
Worknesh Kidane captured the bronze medal for Ethiopia, and was given the same time as the
courageous Kiptum. The team competition was always going to be closely fought between
Kenya and Ethiopia. Both countries placed four runners in the top ten but it was the land
of Habre Gebrselassie and Abebe Bikila that prevailed, 16 points to 20, to bring to and
end a five year run of success for Kenyan teams. Japan took the team bronze medals as they
have done four out of the last five years.
