By 
•Final top three
•[1]Gold – Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) -26:43.14 OR
•[2]Silver – Berihu Aregawi (ETH) – 26:43.44
•[3]Bronze – Grant Fisher (USA) – 26:43.46 SB
Joshua Cheptegei finally won the 10000m Gold medal at the end of a full athletics day at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France.
After year of longing for the medal, Cheptegei claimed the special gold in impressive fashion, timing his attack to perfection and striking from 600 metres out before going on to charge through the line in 26:43.14.
A happy Cheptegei after the final 600 metre sprint.
This final sprint that his famously known for went on to help him break an Olympic record set 16 years ago by Kenenisa Bekele.
Into the race
This was an impressive race run in the Stade de France, one which the Ethiopian trio of Berihu Aregawi, Yomif Kejelcha and defending Selemon Barega appeared to be dominant going on to pull on their tactics on the park.
However, they had to settle for just one medal in the form of Aregawi’s silver while USA’s Grant Fisher claimed bronze.
For the French, it was to their delight when they saw their country man Jimmy Gressier, lead for the first two laps, but Barega then moved to the front and led through 1000m in 2:43.1 with the field already strung out.
Something that his teammate Kejelcha saw as an advantage to go onto the front one lap later to lift the pace in a tactic that was seen as on to tire the other runners, one they did well with Aregawi who slotted into third, creating an Ethiopian 1-2-3 formation.
With in 2000m at 5:22.7, the trio were comfortably on course to break Bekele’s Olympic record with the pace at which the leading trio was running at with Cheptegei 7th the back of the lead pack while his teammate Jacob Kiplimo, the Commonwealth champion, was in the middle.
For Barega, he was trying to shift different gears from the middle to the front with intent to try and reserve his energy as though it was part of a plan.
With the top 20 men operating inside Olympic record pace in 10 laps to go, Cheptegei was sitting in 15th not care for records but with Kejelcha trying to make another break something Canada’s Moh Ahmed didn’t allow to happen as Kibet and South Africa’s Adriaan Wildschutt also moved up through the pack.
21 minutes on the clock, Cheptegei made his presence known moved near enough so as to let his opponents know of his threat however Aregawi went back into the lead after 23 minutes with Ahmed.
Cheptegei with a charge infront of Barega.
Kejelcha and Fisher were still near the front of the pack with two laps to go,Cheptegei’s motivation and intention become clearer with every stride and hit the front with less than 600 metres as he started to wind up the pace.
Aregawi, Ahmed, Fisher, Kejelcha all tried their best to cover his move but it was too late as his finishing speed moved up another gear higher in the final 400 metres witheight men were still in contention.
With his fellow Ugandan Kiplimo stepping away, Cheptegei was up for greatness leaving the pack a few strides behind.
Aregawi came sprinting down the home straight and caught Fisher in the closing stages to claim silver after Cheptegei had already crossed the line in an Olympic record time of 26:43.14.
Cheptegei crossing the line.
After the race a happy and relieved Cheptegei said; “I can’t describe the feeling,!
Cheptegei. “I’ve wanted this for a long time. When I took silver in Tokyo, I was disappointed. I wanted just to win the 10,000m” he added
“It’s the dream of young people to achieve what they want to achieve in life. Barely 16 years ago when I was watching the great Kenenisa Bekele win in Beijing, it was something that grew in my heart. I said, one day, one time, I want to be Olympic champion.” he concluded
Back home in Uganda, the World and Olympic Champion Cheptegei was declared a country hero after completing the Athletics cycle with in his reach before he moves to the marathon bit.
Medals won in senior competitions:
Gold – Paris 2024 Olympics: 10,000m
Gold – Tokyo 2020 Olympics: 5,000m
Silver – Tokyo 2020 Olympics: 10,000m
Gold – 2019, 22, 23: World Champion
Gold – World Record Holder: 5,000m
Gold – World Record Holder: 10,000m
Gold – Olympic Record Holder: 10,000
