Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet raced to victory to claim her second gold of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, this time in the women’s 10,000m, finishing ahead of Italy’s Nadia Battocletti and Dutch star Sifan Hassan who won silver and bronze, respectively.
Chebet raced through the finish line in a time of 30:43.25 to claim her place on the top of the podium, picking up the Olympic title in front of a roaring crowd at the Stade de France.
“I’m so happy, to do the 5000m and 10,000m is not something easy,” she said after the race. “But just focus, and know that you can achieve, just believe in yourself. I believed that I could do it.
“I just wanted to win the 10,000m for my country. My country has never won a gold medal (in the women’s 10,000m). So I said I wanted to be the first woman to win a gold medal in the 10,000m.
On a night when the Stade de France crowd were once again in full voice, the 10,000m race was a slow burner that rose to a brilliant climax in the final lap of the race.
Hassan, who is now two-thirds of the way through an Olympic treble that includes the 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon kicked for the line with 200m to go. However, she could not match the sheer pace and determination of Chebet who adds the gold for the longest track race at the Games to the 5,000m title she won on Monday 5 August.
“I really hope to go,” Hassan said of her marathon attempt that is scheduled to take place on Sunday. “I’ve done in my life the 800m, the 1500m, 10,000m, everything. But endurance on Sunday, that’s not a joke. To finish the marathon is a kind of hell. It’s not easy. The real one will start Sunday.”
Undoubtedly the biggest surprise package of the final was Italy’s Battocletti whose silver in the capital of France caps and excellent year in which she also won European gold in both the 5000m and 10,000m.
But the night belonged to Chebet with a historic race win on another scintillating night of athletics in Paris.
Source: Paris Olympics
