Beatrice joins the Olympic historic club of only two other women who have won the 5000m and 10,000m gold medal at the same Olympic Games.
What a spectacular outing for Beatrice Chebet in Paris. Olympic 5000m champion Beatrice Chebet became the first athlete to win two individual gold medals at the ongoing Olympic Games in Paris.
On Friday night at the Stade De France in the City of Light, Chebet fend off Italy’s Nadia Battocletti in the last 80m to win the 10,000m in a time of 30:43.25. And she did ring the bell. Kenya had never won the women’s 10,000m Olympic Gold medal until Friday night, making Beatrice’s victory a historic one for the East African running nation.
“It means a lot to me, especially winning 5000m and 10000m, more so the 10,000m for my country. My country has never won a gold medal in 10,000m women and I am so happy I have made history for my country. I know they are happy. They believed in me and said – you go and bring the gold medal,” Beatrice said during the press conference.
"I'm dedicating this medal to all Kenyans. I just want to hear my country is proud. You were in my mind and heart in every lap."
Like most of the field, Beatrice ran a tactical race, running behind whoever athlete was at the front. They exchanged leading roles, lap after lap the race unfolded the same. When Margaret Chelimo went in front, she tried to inject the pace, still not fast enough to break the group which had 13 athletes.
The last 400m after the bell led to the injection of pace by Margaret Chelimo whose surge prompted Lilian Kasait to respond immediately running side by side. It was until the 200m bend that Beatrice Chebet made the decisive push, but she was not alone – Italian Nadia Battocletti was right behind her. As tiny as she is, Chebet or the smiling assassin had a strong sprinting power over Nadia. Chebet clocked 30:43.25.
“It wasn’t easy after the 5000m, I had fatigue, and 200m it is not easy, I pushed to see how far I can go, I saw Nadia was coming and fortunately I pushed and won the gold,” Beatrice.
Nadia came in second in 30:43.35, a new Italian record while Sifan Hassan – who was running her own race all through sneaked in the third place.
OLYMPIC GREATS
Beatrice joins the Olympic historic club of only two other women who have won the 5000m and 10,000m gold medal at the same Olympic Games. The others are Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba and Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan.
The two Olympic Gold medals are a reflection of an incredible first of the year that Beatrice has had. On New Year’s Eve, Beatrice broke the Women’s world 5km record (women-only) clocking 14:13 in Barcelona. In March, she defended her world cross country title before battering the 10,000m World Record at Pre-Classic in Oregon with a time 28:54.14 to become the first to run the track distance under 29 minutes. The world record is awaiting World Athletics ratification.
Her athletics accolades include – world championship silver and bronze in 5000m, World U20 title, 5km World Road Running gold, African Junior title and African 5000m title. What a decorated career for an athlete who is only 24 years old.
Kenya now has gold medals, a silver and 2 bronze medals with the medal hunt continuing with the men’s marathon in the morning, the 800m and 1500m in the evening and the women’s marathon on Sunday morning.