Paris — Striving towards the apex of athleticism continues to obsess long-distance Olympians and this manifested itself with Friday's stellar pool of runners in the men's Olympic 10,000-metre which saw the first 13 finishers all coming in under the previous Olympic record.

In what was a cliffhanger right up to the end, Uganda's Olympic champion, reigning world champion and current world record holder Joshua Cheptege withstood intense Ethiopian team tactics to rack up gold at the Stade de France timing an Olympic record of 26 minutes and 43.14 seconds for victory.

In the epic final, Kenya once again failed to end '56 years jinx since Mexico 68 when Naftali Temu's exploits remain the only top honour in the 10,000-metre race.

Top placed Kenyan Bernard Kibet delivered a personal best of 26:43.98 to settle for 5th as compatriots Daniel Mateiko and Nicholas Kimeli could only manage 11th and 14th respectively.

But now Kibet is now thinking outside the box. He believes that if he improves his pace and punches above his weight, he'll be able to break the duck for Kenya in the next Olympic cycle.

"We need to improve on our speed, that's what has been our biggest undoing. If we up our speed a bit more, we will be going for the big titles. For me, I really have to add more weight so I have achieved the kind of speed I am looking for. We always aspire to make Kenya big, so we will try our best," Kibet, who weighs 41kg said.

Despite trailing Cheptegei, Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi, Grant Fisher of Team USA and Canadian Mohammed Ahmed, Kibet was happy with a personal best, given the intense nature of the race.

"I thank God, he has enabled us to finish this epic final. The pace was incredibly quick, although we could not make the top three. But I tried and managed a personal best. That's all I could, especially in the last lap, did my personal best," commented Kibet.

"The final was really tough; looking at a result where many people had run an Olympic record makes me feel proud and yearning for more," He quipped.