Farah’s failure leaves Cheptegei with a Kiplimo, Kamworor duel
Favourite. Cheptegei is the favourite for Olympic 10000m gold but faces stiff challenge from compatriot Kiplimo and Kenyan Kamworor. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- Woeful. Two-time 10000m Olympic champion Mo Farah has twice failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics to leave favourite Joshua Cheptegei up against familiar East Africans for gold quest over the 25 laps on July 30
Briton Mo Farah will not defend his 5000m and 10000m Olympic titles after he failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
It means that the long-distance double gold medals will return to Africa for the first in 13 years if the quality of entries is anything to go by.
Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei is a firm favourite to add the 10000m Olympic title to his world title. The 24-year-old from Kapchorwa has elevated his track CV immensely over the last two years with a 5000m Diamond League trophy, a 10000m world gold, and the 5000m and 10000m world records under his belt.
Yet, whereas Cheptegei is opening to competing over the double in Japan, the 25-lap final on July 30 is his priority race.
Farah, 38, won the Olympic double both at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games.
He attempted to quality over the 10000m twice this month but failed – his last attempt at the British Olympic Trials in Manchester on Friday.
The race, specifically organised by British Athletics to help Farah qualify, saw him post 27:47.04, missing the Olympic qualifying standard of 27:28.00.
New shape
It now means that no man who finished on the men’s 10000m podium in Rio will be in Tokyo. But, the core of Cheptegei’s big rivalry will be made of East Africans.
First, his counterpart Jacob Kiplimo who appears to be in scintillating form after producing the seventh fastest 10000m time of 26:33.93 at the Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting in Czech Republic on May 19.
The world half-marathon champion Kiplimo will also test his speed as he seeks to qualify over the 5000m in Luzern, Switzerland, tomorrow.
Another familiar foe for Cheptegei is Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, a three-time champion over the World Cross-country as well as the World Half-Marathon Championships.
Kamworor has steely recovered from a road accident suffered last year and he won the Kenya Trials.
Kenya has not won the 10000m Olympic gold since Naftali Temu at the 1968 Mexico City Games but Paul Tanui won silver in Rio.
Then Ethiopia, the last African country to hold this Olympic title through Kenenisa Bekele at Beijing 2008, presents Yomif Kejelcha and Selemon Barega.
Kejelcha’s long strides proved a burden in a tactical 10000m final at the Doha World Championships in 2019 and it needed Cheptegei’s extra gear in the last 200m to beat him to gold.
The younger Barega is rising fast too. In Doha, then aged 19, he powered to take silver behind counterpart Edris Muktar in the 5000m final.
Eritrean Aron Kifle, who won silver at the African Games two years ago, will also want to exorcise the demons for finishing a distant 15th in Doha.
Deadline for qualification is tomorrow and the entries are subject to late changes.
