Chebet surprises with 5000m Olympics ticket
Secured ticket. Chebet.
What you need to know:
- She came fifth in the 1500m final at the All Africa Games in Morocco before stopping in the Heats at the 2019 Doha World Championships.
- But the 23-year-old surprised to book a ticket over the longer 5000m during the Nijmegen Global Athletics Meet in the Netherlands on Saturday.
In recent times when she’s become a regular, Esther Chebet has been finding her groove over the middle-distance.
She came fifth in the 1500m final at the All Africa Games in Morocco before stopping in the Heats at the 2019 Doha World Championships.
But the 23-year-old surprised to book a ticket over the longer 5000m during the Nijmegen Global Athletics Meet in the Netherlands on Saturday.
Chebet came second over the 12-and-half-laps in a personal best time of 15:4.89 seconds behind Australian Matt Doyle.
“She basically run at Olympic Games’ qualifying time the whole race, the girl who won always in the lead like a perfect pacer,” said her manager Jurrie van der Velden.
Chebet is the third Uganda woman to qualify for the Tokyo Games over the distance – after Stella Chesang and national record holder Sarah Chelangat.
She brings to eight the number of women runners to make the Tokyo grade from Uganda, a country with eight Olympic medals but none from a female.
Global Athletes Meet
WOMEN’S 5000M RESULT
1.Batt Doyle AUS 15:04.10
2.Esther Chebet UGA 15:04.89
3.Diane van Es NED 15:07.52
