Elias Makori
21 August 2008
Beijing — A world record holder, an Olympic champion and an African champion. This is the sort of opposition that Kenyan girls will come up against in Friday's final of the 5,000m at the "Bird's Nest" from 8.40 pm, Beijing time (3.40 pm Kenyan time).
Only the brave will bet on a Kenyan gold medal in this race that the Ethiopians could possibly take all the medals on offer. They only have to sort out the podium places.
Sylvia Kibet, Vivian Cheruiyot and Prisca Jepleting will represent Kenya in the 12-and-a-half laps race.
The final is tipped to be a battle between two of track and field's long standing rivals, world record holder Tirunesh Dibaba and defending Olympic champion Meseret Defar, with the former already having bagged the 10,000m gold at these Games and going out to get about the only big title missing from her glittering collection.
Defar lost her bid for the Africa title in Addis Ababa early this year when she was beaten to second place in the 5,000m by compatriot and new Africa champion Meselech Melkamu who's also in it with a shout Friday.
Then add American Shalane Flanagan, the surprise bronze medallist in the 10,000m here, and Turkey's former Ethiopian Elvan Abeylegasse who won the silver ahead of Flanagan, then it becomes more and more evident that the Kenyans will struggle to be in the medals.
But Cheruiyot is a fighter and her silver medal behind Defar's gold at last year's World Championships in Osaka attests to the fact that you can never write her off.
"I want a fast-paced race which will make it open and difficult for anyone," said Cheruiyot whose personal best time stands at 14:22.51.
Jepleting took bronze in Osaka and will be looking towards another team effort today in Kenya's bid to end Ethiopia's surge that started building up in Sydney 2000 when Gete Wami won the bronze medal behind Romania's Gabriela Szabo and Irishwoman Sonia O'sullivan.
Dibaba holds the world record of 14 minutes, 11.15 seconds.
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