Augustine Kiprono Choge won Kenya’s fourth gold medal of these World Championships, taking the 5000m title in 13:28.93, following a last lap burn-up with two Ethiopians Bado Worku and Tariku Bekele, the brother of the current 5000m and 10,000m world record holder Kenenisa.
With 100 metres to go, Choge was heading for gold, but the silver was up for grabs and Bekele, who had taken the leaders through the 4000m point in 10:59.66, was unable to resist the charge of Worku, who finished in a personal best of 13:30.45, just ahead of Bekele who clocked13:30.86.
For the first half of the race, two 10,000m aces from two other African nations, the world junior champion Boniface Kiprop of Uganda and Fabiano Joseph of Tanzania, tried to take the finish out of the 5,000m specialists, with Kiprop leading through 1000m in 2:54.34, with the entire field strung out in single file, and Joseph then setting the pace at 2000m, which he reached in 5:29.07 before Kiprop took over again, reaching 3000m in 8:10.21.
But the effects of that 10,000m, run four days previously, began to tell and the leading group soon consisted of the two Ethiopians, Qatar’s Sultan Khamis Zaman, Choge, Kiprop and Joseph. Zaman’s closing sprint took him to fourth place with 13:32.33 with Kiprop and Joseph finishing fifth and sixth respectively with 13:33.18 and 13:33.62.
