Kenyans Joyce Chepkirui, Florence Kiplagat and Emily Chebet blew the field away for a clean sweep of the women’s 10,000m medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Tuesday.
African 10,000m champion [link id=”421″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Joyce Chepkirui”] overtook her more experienced compatriot [link id=”429″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Florence Kiplagat”], a two-time world champion in cross-country and half marathon, with 10 metres to go, to snatch the gold medal in 32 minutes and 9.35 seconds.
[link id=”429″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Florence Kiplagat”], the world half-marathon record holder, finished second in 32:09.48 and [link id=”501″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Emily Chebet”] was third in 32:10.82.
After securing her first major global title in Glasgow, Joyce Chepkirui will now be more determined to retain her African 10,000m crown in [link id=”367″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Marrakesh”] next month.
“I am the African champion, but I have never really won a big championship like this before,” said the 26-year-old Kenyan. “I am happy with the win but more with the support of Chebet and Florence. We had planned it exactly this way.”
“The plan was for a medal but to get the gold is fantastic. When Florence took off with about 200m I went with her and with about 20m I attacked, surprisingly I went past her,” she added.
In the women’s 1500m Final, the 2012 World junior champion, [link id=”404″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Faith Chepngetich Kibiegon”] (Kipyegon) clocked 4:08.94 to take the Glasgow 2014 gold medal ahead of Laura Weightman (4:09.24) of England and Kate van Buskirk (4:09.41) of Canada.
Her compatriot and pre-race favourite, Hellen Obiri, who sets a Commonwealth games record of 4:04.43 in the earlier rounds yesterday,ran out of gas and eventually faded to sixth position in 4:10.84.
“I couldn’t have done this without my teammates. We planned to pace together and we did until after the bell when we realized Weightman was right there with us when I sped off. I am very happy with my progression as a seniors,” said Kibiegon.
