Joshua Cheptegei on his way to winning the 5000m at the Tokyo Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
Men's 5000m
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• World champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen set to clash with defending Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei
• Only two men have won back-to-back Olympic 5000m titles
• Hagos Gebrhiwet, second-fastest man in history, looking to improve on 2016 bronze
Joshua Cheptegei will defend his 5000m title in Paris, looking to follow Lasse Viren (1972-1976) and Mo Farah (2012-2016) as the third man in history to win back-to-back Olympic golds at the distance.
But for the world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder and three-time world 10,000m champion to achieve this feat, he will have to overcome the formidable challenge of world 5000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
It’s a highly anticipated and overdue clash, as it didn’t come to fruition at last year’s World Championships after Cheptegei was a late withdrawal.
The Ugandan line-up also includes two-time world cross-country champion Jacob Kiplimo who was fifth at this distance in Tokyo three years ago and third over 10,000m. Both he and Cheptegei have contested the same two 5000m races this year; Cheptegei finished ahead of Kiplimo in Los Angeles in mid-May, but Kiplimo fared better in Oslo two weeks later, clocking a PB of 12:40.96 to finish third in a high-quality race as Cheptegei set a season’s best of 12:51.94 back in ninth.
As was the case in the Japanese capital, Kiplimo and Cheptegei will double at 5000m and 10,000m, while 2022 world bronze medallist Oscar Chelimo will contest the 5000m.
Two-time world 5000m champion Ingebrigtsen will be contesting the distance at the Olympics for the first time, doubling up with the 1500m. The 23-year-old hasn’t contested any 5000m races on the invitational circuit this season, but he won the European title in June then improved his own European 1500m record to 3:26.73 in Monaco one month later.
This is more than just a Norway-Uganda battle, though.
The Ethiopian charge is led by 2016 bronze medallist Hagos Gebrhiwet, who won in Oslo earlier this year in a national record of 12:36.73, making him the second-fastest man in history. He’ll be keen to become the fourth Ethiopian man to win an Olympic 5000m title after Miruts Yifter (1980), Million Wolde (2000) and Kenenisa Bekele (2008).
At just 17 years of age, Biniam Mehary will be contesting his second global championships of the year. The Ethiopian reached the world indoor 1500m final earlier this year, then went on to set PBs of 12:54.10 for 5000m and 26:37.93 for 10,000m during the outdoor season.
World U20 champion Addisu Yihune, meanwhile, will be making his senior championships debut following a 12:49.65 PB in Oslo. Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega is Ethiopia’s reserve in the 5000m.
Kenya’s sole Olympic gold medal in the men’s 5000m was won by John Ngugi back in 1988 – long before the three Kenyan 5000m entrants had been born. World bronze medallist Jacob Krop leads the Kenyan contingent alongside national trials winner Ronald Kwemoi and Edwin Kurgat.
The entries also include Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed, the silver medallist in Tokyo three years ago, Guatemala’s Luis Grijalva, Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo, European 10,000m champion Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu, USA’s Grant Fisher, Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew, and Swedish record-holder Andreas Almgren.
Women's 5000m
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• Clash between four reigning global champions and the three fastest women in history
• Faith Kipyegon set to make Olympic 5000m debut
• Potentially one of four disciplines contested by 2021 winner Sifan Hassan
The world record-holders over 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m will meet in the middle at this distance in what looks set to be an intense and exhilarating clash.
Faith Kipyegon, Gudaf Tsegay and Beatrice Chebet have respectively broken the world records across those three distances over the past 12 months. All three have also won global titles in that time frame.
Add defending champion Sifan Hassan to the equation, and this looks set to be the highest calibre event at the Games.
Sifan Hassan wins the 5000m at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
Tsegay, the bronze medallist at this distance in Tokyo, broke Kipyegon’s world 5000m record with 14:00.21 at the Diamond League Final in Eugene last year, just a few weeks after winning the world 10,000m title. She has raced just twice this year, but has set PBs in both races, clocking 3:50.30 over 1500m in Xiamen and 29:05.92 over 10,000m in Eugene.
Like Tsegay, Kipyegon will be doubling at 1500m and 5000m in Paris. The two-time Olympic 1500m champion won her third world 1500m title in Budapest last year, then went on to take gold over 5000m, capping a track campaign in which she’d also set world records for both distances.
Kipyegon, who reduced the world 1500m record to 3:49.04 in Paris in early July, will be contesting the 5000m at the Olympics for the first time.
She will be joined on the Kenyan team by two-time world cross-country champion Beatrice Chebet, who broke the world 10,000m record with 28:54.14 in Eugene earlier this year. Prior to that, she had won the 5000m in Doha in 14:26.98 and then finished second to Kipyegon at the Kenyan Trials.
World cross-country bronze medallist Margaret Chelimo completes the Kenyan line up.
Hassan, who won Olympic 5000m and 10,000m gold in Tokyo, is yet to decide exactly which disciplines she’ll contest in Paris – having qualified in the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and marathon – but the Dutch runner will be a formidable opponent in any of those.
Ethiopian teenager Medina Eisa, the African Games champion and winner of the Rabat Diamond League, is also entered, as is world 10,000m bronze medallist Ejgayehu Taye. The duo finished fourth and fifth respectively at the World Championships last year.
USA’s Elle St Pierre produced a fearless run to win the world indoor 3000m title in Glasgow before going on to set PBs of 3:55.99 over 1500m and 14:34.12 over 5000m during the outdoor season. The 29-year-old will be keen to win her first outdoor global medal.
Nadia Battocletti, who set an Italian record of 14:35.29 to win the European title in June, will be looking to improve on her seventh-place finish from Tokyo. European half marathon champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal, Japanese record-holder Nozomi Tanaka and Australia’s Rose Davies are also ones to watch.
Michelle Katami for World Athletics
