In Paris
Faith Kipyegon went back to the Olympic Village in the Paris district of St Denis at about midnight on Monday, distraught after learning of her disqualification – and the loss of a silver medal - for allegedly “obstructing Ethiopia’s world record holder Gudaf Tsegay in the final of the 5,000 metres.
The dramatic race was won by Kipyegon’s compatriot, heir-apparent and world 10,000 metres record holder Beatrice Chebet with Ethiopia-born Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan third.
Chebet stunned the decorated Kipyegon with 50 metres to go, outsprinting the multiple World and Olympic champion to bag Kenya’s first gold medal at these Games with a time of 14 minutes, 28.56 seconds.
Chebet, from Londiani in Kericho County, holds the 10,000m world record at 28 minutes, 54.14 seconds that she set at the Eugene Diamond League meeting in USA in May this year.
But moments after the bruising final, and as Kipyegon was going through the media mixed zone for post-race interviews, news filtered through that her medal had cancelled for “obstructing” Ethiopian nemesis Tsegay.
Kipyegon broke down, was devastated, cut short the media interviews and was escorted away, still draped in the Kenyan flag, by Team Kenya Press Attache Lynne Wachira.
Immediately, Kenya’s officials paid the mandatory $100 (Sh13,000) appeal fee and launched a protest with the competitions’ Jury of Appeal taking over one and a half hours to deliberate on the incident before releasing a statement at 11.16pm - two hours and one minute after the race’s 9.15pm blast off - indicating they had rescinded the decision to disqualify the Kenyan star and reinstated her silver medal.
“The jury of appeal has reviewed all available evidence and agreed there was significant contact between, and by two athletes (Kipyegon and Gudaf),” the competition’s Jury of Appeal said in their ruling. The jury concluded that the incident did not warrant a disqualification.
“The Jury wishes to make clear that jostling of this nature is never acceptable and therefore recommends that Faith Kipyegon receives a disciplinary yellow card which would carry through the remainder of the Games.
“The Jury of Appeal has reinstated Kenyan athlete Faith Kipyegon to the silver medal position in the women’s 5,000m,” the statement concluded.
Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan - entered in the 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon at these Games – had, temporarily, been elevated to silver after Kipyegon disqualification and Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, who came home fourth, promoted to bronze medal position.
But Sifan, who shares the same management at Kipyegon (Netherlands-based Global Sports Communication) rallied behind the Kenyan star, saying she deserved the silver, and that she (Sifan) was happy to keep her bronze medal.
“I am really happy that Faith will have her medal back. These two (Chebet and Kipyegon) are phenomenal. Faith deserved her silver medal and to me it doesn’t matter,” Sifan remarked.
“For some reason, I am very honest person and I don’t really feel like I deserve silver. Even if I won gold, silver or bronze today it didn’t matter.
“I won bronze and I don’t wish for silver. I already know that she was going to protest and get it. I am really happy with my bronze medal. I love it actually,” the Dutchwoman, winner of the 2023 London and Chicago marathons said.
Kipyegon’s tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy when news filtered through that she had been reinstated.
Kipyegon is doubling in the 5,000m and her 1,500m specialty and yesterday morning, she woke up charged and cruised through to the semi-finals of the 1,500m in 4:00.74, alongside compatriots Susan Ejore (3:59.01) and Nelly Chepchirchir (4:02.67).
Gudaf is entered to run in the 5,000m, 10,000m and 1,500m and on Tuesday, she also qualified for the 1,500m semi-finals in 3:58.84, the fastest time in the heats, which sets up the script for another tense battle with Kipyegon.
The semi-final draw hasn’t been drafted yet as there is a “repechage” qualifying round on Wednesday for athletes who failed to gain automatic qualification to the semis.
A relaxed Kipyegon was at ease in the media zone, saying the 5,000m drama is behind her and she is tuned to defending her 1,500m in the final on Saturday which will make her the first athlete to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the metric mile distance after her golden runs in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2021).
“I feel good. To tell the truth I am a bit tired but I feel fresh. This is another race, another distance. I’m really good, mentally,” she said with a broad smile, a stark contract from her teary Monday night eyes.
“This is sport and we accept the outcome. I’m Faith and I always compete in a good way, and I believe in myself – it was a good race but a lot of pushing, but it’s finished and now I focus on 1,500m,” she reacted to the proceedings of Monday night.
“It was very hard for me but you need to accept the outcome… I just went to the Athletes’ Village and took a nap, because I knew I have another day today and another distance so I had to wake up strong and look forward.
“I was not disappointed… I thank Kenyans for their support and for their prayers and we keep fighting to the finish line of the 1,500m.”
Meanwhile, Addis Ababa woke up to a tirade of attacks on ‘X’ and other social media accounts, many Kenyans online criticizing Gudaf for what they termed as “foul play.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Kenya’s former world javelin champion and Olympic Julius Yego made it to the final with his third throw of Tuesday morning’s qualifying rounds and said he was happy with his progress thus far.
Kenya’s former world javelin champion and Olympic silver medalist Julius Yego celebrates his automatic qualification to Thursday’s Olympic Games javelin final. Photo | Elias Makori
Yego hurled the implement to a distance of 85.97 metres after his previous two attempts landed at 78.84m and 80.76m.
With the automatic qualification standard set at 84 metres, Yego’s 85.97m, the sixth-best throw of the qualification round, handed him the direct ticket to Thursday’s final where he will be up against a legion of 11 other stars including Czech Republic’s European champion Jakub Vadlejch (85.63 on Tuesday), Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters (88.63) and Trinidad’s 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott who is through as one of the best losers with a mark of 83.02.
India’s reigning Olympic and World champion, Neeraj Chopra, had the best throw of 89.34m followed by Peters’ 88.63 and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadem (86.59).
“Let’s hope on Thursday I will have a better throw. I had a good feeling in the warm-up before we got to the stadium and I knew that I would have a good throw.
“I really needed that… I feel now the body is ready to throw the javelin again. I just need to take it easy, get the technique right and it will be even bigger,” Yego noted, saying his automatic qualification was a huge burden off his shoulders.
“Qualification is usually tense and for you to be sure of getting to the final is by getting the automatic qualification which today was too high at 84 metres!
“I knew that to get 84m was possible because I had a good feeling in training this week and the whole of last week.”
