Olympic 5000m champion Beatrice Chebet will seek to become the first Kenyan to win an Olympic double when she parades in the 10000m final of the Paris Olympic Games at the Stade de France on Friday.
Chebet, who has a world record of 28:54.14, won the 5000m title three days ago, beating two-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon and Dutch woman Sifan Hassan in the sprint.
The race has the who is who in track distance running, led by defending champion Sifan (29:06.82), controversial two-time world 5000m record-holder Gudaf Tsegay and compatriots Fotyen Tesfay (29:47.71) and Tsigie Gebreselama (29:48.34).
Tsegay is the 5000m world title holder at Oregon 2022 and added the 10000m crown a year later in Budapest.
If successful, Sifan will become the only woman to have won the title consecutively after Tirunesh Dibaba's feats in Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Kenya’s Lilian Kasait, the second fastest runner this year with another sub-30 display of 29:26.89, is in the mix alongside Margaret Chelimo (29:27.59), who was fifth in the 5000m final.
Despite being a debutant at the Games, Chebet finds herself among the favourites, especially after keeping pace and conquering the more experienced runners in the 5000m.
However, she expects a rough evening. "It will be tough but I will try my best," she said.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan duo of former world U20 champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Commonwealth Games title holder Wycliffe Kinyamal are keeping their fingers crossed ahead of Friday's men's 800m semifinals.
In the qualifying rounds, Kinyamal finished third in Heat Five in 1:45.86 while Wanyonyi won Heat Three in 1:44.64.
The duo targets a smooth sail to the final, where they expect to extend Kenya's dominance in the two-lap race.
The East Africans have had a chokehold on the title in the last four Olympics through Wilfred Bungei (Beijing 2008), world record holder David Rudisha (London 2012 and Rio 2016) and Emmanuel Korir (Tokyo 2020).
