Olympic 5000m champion Beatrice Chebet expects a rough ride when she chases a historic Olympic double in the 10,000m final of the Paris Olympic Games on August 9 at the Stade de France.
Chebet won Kenya's first gold medal at the Paris show when she outsprinted two-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon on Monday night to win the 5000m title. "It will be tough but I will try my best," she said.
Chebet will be in the company of Lilian Kasait and Margaret Chelimo, who finished fifth in the 5000m race.
She is the favourite, going by her performance in the shorter distance, but faces familiar foes in the likes of two-time world 5000m record-holder Gudaf Tsegay, Dutch woman Siffan Hassan and the two Kenyans.
Chebet is the least experienced of the top-drawer athletes. Tsegay won the 5000m world title at Oregon 2022 and added the 10000m crown a year later in Budapest. Sifan is the defending champion from Tokyo 2020.
Meanwhile, Chebet is over the moon after striking an Olympic title on debut. "I am so happy since this is my first track and field gold medal. I'm progressing well after silver, bronze and now gold at the big stage, especially being a debutant at the Olympics," she said.
Regarding pushing and shoving, which saw Faith Kipyegon's silver medal struck and reinstated, she said: " It was very competitive since we had Faith, Sifan (Hassan), Gudaf (Tsegay) and Margaret (Chelimo). It was just a matter of determination, focus and being patient."
She believes the incident distracted Kipyegon and made her expend a lot of energy to stay inside the kerb. This played into her hands.
"When Faith pushed, I followed her to ensure I landed the silver. But with 100m to go, I felt I had some energy to push for the gold. I charged and all went well," she said.
