Peter Ng'etich
23 August 2008
Beijing — Nancy Jebet Langat won the gold medal in the women's 1500 metres at the Bird's Nest stadium on Saturday in a time of four minute 00.23 seconds.
In the men's 5,000m, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele outsprinted his rivals with a stunning last lap to win the 5,000 metres on Saturday and become the first man to complete the Olympic long-distance double since 1980.
In an open field of the 1,500m, Ukraine took silver and bronze medal positions through Iryna Lishchynska and Nataliya Tobias.
Favourite Maryam Jamal of Bahrain led until she was overtaken by Langat, who had stuck tightly behind her, with 250 metres remaining.
Jamal, the current world champion, faded badly and missed out on a medal position, ending up in fifth place. The Ethiopian-born runner said she had felt ill. "What happened? I was sick," she said.
Langat, who only made the semi-finals in Athens four years ago, timed her move to perfection, having the acceleration to take the lead and the endurance to keep the Ukrainians at bay.
Very surprised
"I was very surprised. I knew Jamal was very strong and expecting to win the race, I was not expecting to be a gold medallist," said the Kenyan. "I just stayed behind them and then the last 300, I tried to push."
Lishchynska said she had benefited from a combination of good fortune and hard work.
"I feel so lucky to win a silver. I'm so excited that I performed so well here, I sacrificed a lot for this event and second place in the Olympic Games is beautiful," she said.
The 26-year-old Bekele who retained his 10,000 title last Sunday, raced home in an Olympic record time of 12 minutes 57.82 seconds to give Ethiopia a sweep of all four distance titles after Tirunesh Dibaba completed the women's double on Friday.
Eliud Kipchoge, who denied Bekele a world championship double in Paris in 2003, was unable to follow the leader when he broke for home and finished well adrift in 13.02.80.
The 24-year-old's compatriot Edwin Cheruiyot Soi took bronze in 13.06.22, while American Bernard Lagat, whose kick was enough to win him the world title last year, found the pace just too quick and trailed in ninth.
It was a first major 5,000m title for the world record-holder and matched the feat last achieved by his compatriot Miruts Yifter in Moscow 28 years ago and never managed by another Ethiopian great, Haile Gebreselassie.
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