Chebet eyeing the double

Beatrice Chebet is enjoying her reign as queen of the longer distance track events and heads to Tokyo for the World Athletics Championships as the world record-holder in both the 5000m and 10,000m.

Just as she did in Paris, the double Olympic champion is targeting two gold medals in Tokyo, and the 10,000m is first up on her schedule.

Four past winners of the 10,000m at the World Championships have also completed the double by winning the 5000m: Tirunesh Dibaba in 2005, Kenenisa Bekele in 2009, Vivian Cheruiyot in 2011, and Mo Farah in both 2013 and 2015. Cheruiyot was also the last Kenyan woman to claim the 10,000m title in 2015.

Although this will be the first time Chebet has contested the 10,000m at the World Championships, she’ll still start as one of the big favourites as she takes on defending champion Gudaf Tsegay.

The four fastest women in history will be in contention in the women’s 5000m although the focus will be on Chebet and Faith Kipyegon, in what will be their first clash since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Chebet became the first woman to cover 5000m within 14 minutes with her world record of 13:58.06 at the Prefontaine Classic in July. The race, which doubled as the Kenyan Trials, also featured Agnes Ngetich and Gudaf Tsegay, who clocked 14:01.29 and 14:04.41 respectively.

The 2022 silver medallist and a bronze medal winner a year after that, Chebet will be keen to complete her set of World Championship medals when she takes on Kipyegon, her idol and the defending champion.

Kipyegon, 31, hasn’t raced in the 5000m since the Paris Olympics, where she took silver behind Chebet. Three weeks ago in Silesia, she threatened the long-standing world 3000m record with 8:07.04, the second-fastest time in history, bumping Chebet’s 8:11.56 down to third on the world all-time list.

In the men’s 10,000m race, the absence of three-time winner Joshua Cheptegei leaves way clear for new world champion to be crowned in Japan.

Ethiopia remains the most successful nation in this discipline at the World Championships. Although it’s been 14 years since they last took home the gold medal, Ethiopia heads to the Japanese capital with three strong chances in the form of world leader Biniam Mehary, Olympic silver medallist Berihu Aregawi, and 2021 Olympic champion Selemon Barega.

The trio sit at the top of the world list following their 1-2-3 finish at the Prefontaine Classic, all finishing inside 26:45 and crossing the line within 1.5 seconds of one another.

At the Olympics last year, the only person to finish ahead of Aregawi was Cheptegei. With the world record-holder absent from Tokyo, Aregawi – winner of four global silver medals – has a great chance of winning his first global gold.

In the men’s 5,000m race, World and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen will open his season at the World Athletics Championships, coming back from an Achilles injury.

In an uninterrupted year, the Norwegian would have been the pre-race favourite for a third consecutive world title in Tokyo, a venue where he claimed the Olympic 1500m title in 2021. Though his current form and fitness is unknown, he still cannot be ruled out.

The net for the 5000m medal contenders stretches far and wide.

Double Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher, who earlier this year set world indoor records at 3000m (7:22.91) and 5000m (12:44.09, is joined on the US team by national champion Nico Young, who set an outdoor US record of 12:45.27 to win in Oslo.

Sweden’s Andreas Almgren is another Diamond League winner heading to Tokyo. He triumphed on home soil in Stockholm, breaking the European record with 12:44.27. He pulled out of the 5000m in Monaco one month later, but more recently he finished third over 3000m at the Diamond League Final.

France’s Jimmy Gressier will be inspired by his 3000m victory at the Diamond League Final in Zurich. To date, his highest placing in a global track final was his ninth-place finish over 5000m in 2022.

The Ethiopian squad, tasked with reclaiming the 5000m title they last won in 2019, features two of the fastest athletes of all time: Hagos Gebrhiwet (second) and Yomif Kejelcha (fourth).

Gebrhiwet, the world road 5km champion, placed sixth in Budapest and fifth in Paris last year. This will be his ninth appearance at an outdoor global championships, and he’ll be keen to improve on the silver and bronze medals he won in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

Kejelcha is a two-time world indoor champion at 3000m, but is yet to earn a global medal over 5000m. That said, his form this year has been impressive with victories at the Diamond League meetings in Monaco and Paris, both times breaking 12:50.

Jacob Krop, the bronze and silver medallist in 2022 and 2023, will lead the Kenyan team alongside Matthew Kipsang and Cornelius Kemboi in their bid to end a 20-year gold medal drought.

The championships could also witness a repeat performance from the three men who earned podium positions at the marathon staged in Tokyo in March.

Tadese Takele’s time of 2:03:23 in earning his first major marathon victory makes him the fastest entrant for the marathon at the World Championships.

The 23-year-old Ethiopian – who had previously finished seventh and third at the Berlin Marathon – was followed home by his compatriot Deresa Geleta, who clocked 2:03:51.

That makes him the second-fastest entrant, one position above Kenya’s Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich, who finished a few paces behind him in Tokyo in 2:04:00.

Athletes from these two east African nations look likely to make a major impact on the race, as has so often been the case. Of the past nine titles, Kenya has won four and Ethiopia two.

On paper, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa looks the woman to beat over 26.2 miles on the streets of Tokyo.

Her credentials in the marathon are long established. She is a two-time winner of the Berlin Marathon and won London earlier this year with a world-leading 2:15:50.

For a period, Assefa was also the world record-holder, clocking 2:11:53 in Berlin in 2023 to chop more than two minutes off the previous mark.

The 28-year-old will firmly have her sights set on gold having missed out agonisingly in the final throes of the Olympic marathon in a literal shoulder-to-shoulder finish with Sifan Hassan in Paris last summer.

Her closest challenger potentially comes from closer to home in the form of compatriot Sutume Asefa Kebede, who clearly has the credentials for running in the Japanese capital having won the Tokyo Marathon for the past two years.