Personal ambition and expectations of more than 56 million Kenyans weigh heavily on the shoulders of Olympic Games 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres champion, Beatrice Chebetn as the 2025 World Athletics Championships begin in Tokyo, Japan today
At the same time, multiple Olympics and world champion, Faith Kipyegon, begins her quest to win a fourth straight world title in the metric mile today from 7.50am local time (1.50pm Kenyan time) when she leads newcomer Dorcas Ewoi, Nelly Chepchirchir, and Susan Ejore in the heats of women’s 1,500m race.
Janeth Chepngetich (right) celebrates with Agnes Jebet Ngetich and Beatrice Chebet after the trio filled up the podium places in the women’s 10,000m race at Athletics Kenya National Trials for the 2025 World Athletics Championships at Ulinzi Sports Complex, Nairobi on July 22.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo| Nation Media Group
The biennial track and field championships will run from September 13 to 21, and will be centred at Tokyo National Stadium.
The 25-year-old Chebet, who is a corporal in the National Police Service, leads Kenya’s charge in the final of the women's 10,000m race from 9.30am (3.30pm Kenyan time).
Although she is a diminutive athlete, Chebet’s achievements easily dwarf those of her opponents. She holds four world records – in women-only and mixed 5km, the women’s 5,000m, and women’s 10,000m.
In winning women’s 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Chebet, 25, became only the third woman in history to win both events at a single edition of the Olympics.
She now wants to become the first woman to hold both Olympics and world titles over 5,000m and 10,000m in Tokyo as she seeks to end Kenya’s 10-year wait for the world title in the 25-lap race. Vivian Cheruiyot won Kenya’s last gold medal in the race at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China.
Today, Chebet leads her compatriots Janeth Chepn’getich, who won at the Kenyan trials, and Agnes Jebet Ng’etich who came second at the trials.
“To run alongside Agnes Jebet and Chebet and qualify for the world championships warms my heart. I think we will form a good team in Tokyo,” Chepn’getich said after timing 30 minutes, 27.02 seconds at Ulinzi Sports Complex in Nairobi on July 22.
“We will push each other in Tokyo to deliver results,” Ngetich offered.
That unity will be put to test when the Kenyan trio comes up against a star-studded field featuring 2019 world champion Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands (30:17.62), who also won gold medal over the distance at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and reigning world champion Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia who timed 31:27.18 to win in Budapest in 2023.
World record holder Chebet (28:54.14) is the fastest athlete on the field. She set the world record on May 25, 2024 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting, becoming the first woman to run the 25-lap race in under 29 minutes.
The 10,000m was added to the world championships programme in Rome 1987. Ingrid Kristiansen from Norway was the inaugural champion in 31:05.85.
Since then, the women’s 10,000m has been run as a straight final at every World Championships since Seville 1999.
Kenya’s Edmund Serem, Abraham Kibiwott and Simon Koech begin the quest to reclaim the men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase title from Moroccan runner Soufiane El Bakkali’s stranglehold from 6.20pm.
Kibiwott, a bronze medallist from 2023 World Athletics Championships from Budapest, was part of the audience on Tuesday when National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) President Shadrack Maluki visited Team Kenya’s camp at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, and made a passionate appeal to local athletes to reclaim Kenya’s lost glory in men’s steeplechase race.
Since Conseslus Kipruto won the world title in 2019 in Doha, El Bakkali has dominated, winning two consecutive gold medals in Oregon 2022 and in Budapest 2023.
In between, the towering Moroccan also won the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games titles. The 17-year-old Serem, Kibiwott and Koech will be out to end that dominance when they compete in the heats.
Plenty of attention will be in women’s 1,500m with the defending champion and Olympic gold winner over the distance Faith Kipyegon, starts her quest to win an unprecedented fifth world title.
The imperious Kipyegon will lead compatriots, newcomer Dorcas Ewoi, Nelly Chepchirchir, and Susan Ejore in today’s heats.
