Vivian Cheruiyot runs a blazing final kilometer in her surprise 5,000m win. © www.photorun.net

At the World Championships in Berlin, Kenya’s women’s team have run extremely well against their Ethiopian rivals. Kenya has now won both women’s long distance titles—the first time in either a global championship or at the Olympics. The latest success came when Vivian Cheruiyot won the 5,000-meter final in 14:57.97 minutes on Saturday evening.

“We’re going to beat the Ethiopians this time, we’re certain of that,” Cheruiyot predicted at the Kenyan Trials in July. This prognostication turned out to be true. Exactly one week after Linet Masai’s victory in the 10,000m came the 5,000m final which proved uneventful until late in the race.

The favorites controlled the race from the front, but the tempo was very slow. They went through 3,000m in 9:15.05 and from that point on, the pace began to quicken dramatically. Vivian Cheruiyot led through 4,000m, which was a 12:15.79 split. A tremendous contest began to develop between the three Kenyans and four Ethiopians. Similar to the 10,000m final, the defending champion, Meseret Defar (Ethiopia), led into the home straight, but it just wasn’t in the cards that day for the second-fastest 5,000m runner in history. Cheruiyot reduced Defar’s lead with every stride. Just like Linet Masai in the 10,000m, Cheruiyot had timed her finish to near perfection. She surged past the Ethiopian with about 20m remaining. While Cheruiyot celebrated as she crossed the line, her compatriot, Sylvia Kibet, snatched the silver medal in the last five meters, running 14:58.33. Meseret Defar, who finished fifth in the 10,000m, took the bronze this time in 14:58.41 from her compatriots, Sentayehu Ejigu (15:03.38), and Meselech Melkamu (15:03.72). The third Kenyan in the race, Iness Chenonge, finished sixth in 15:06.06 while there was a surprise in seventh place: Italian Silvia Weissteiner, the best non-African runner, who ran 15:09.74.

“It’s been a long time since Kenya won a 5,000m gold,” said a happy Vivian Cheruiyot afterwards. This statement isn’t quite correct, since a Kenyan woman has never come out on top in this event—neither at the World Championships nor the Olympic games. “Over the last 100m, I just kept running, running, running. I am so happy to have won. It was also a team effort. We prayed that we would win and God has given us this medal,” Cheruiyot explained. It’s worth noting that her final kilometer was a blazing 2:42.18!

She closed by noting the source of her inspiration and added another prediction: “Linet Masai gave me courage after her 10,000m victory—she was an inspiration for me and I believed I could beat Meseret Defar. The Kenyan women are going to get even stronger!”