With one last chance for a gold medal in what is probably her last Olympics, Vivian Cheruiyot turned to — who else — Usain Bolt for a pre-race pep talk.
Guess what? It worked.
The Kenyan said she shared a few words with Bolt before her 5,000m final at the Olympic Stadium on Friday. Then she ran down world champion and heavy favorite Almaz Ayana to win a long-awaited first Olympic title. She also set a new Games record.
Photo: EPA
“It was my fourth Olympic Games and I had not got gold,” 32-year-old Cheruiyot said. “Almaz can go fast... Today I said: ‘I am going to follow her. I am not going to lose her.’”
Ayana set a world record to win gold in the 10,000m last week and opened a big gap in Friday’s 5,000m final. However, the Ethiopian suddenly faded and Cheruiyot and Kenyan teammate Hellen Obiri saw their chance.
Cheruiyot surged, breezing past Ayana with about two laps to go to win in 14 minutes, 26.17 seconds, breaking an Olympic record that has stood for 16 years.
Obiri followed home in second for silver, 3.6 seconds behind Cheruiyot for a Kenyan 1-2.
Ayana, who was tipped to have a crack at the 5,000m world record in the final after missing it by just a second in June, slumped and held on grimly for third in 14 minutes, 33.59 seconds.
“I saw her, I saw she’s not running smoothly and also she was slow,” Cheruiyot said. “She was not going good and we were coming, and I said to Hellen: ‘Let’s go, let’s go. We are going to get something.’”
The victory gave Cheruiyot revenge for her second-place finish behind the Ethiopian in the 10,000m earlier in the Games and finally put her on the top of the podium at her fourth Olympics, after a silver and a bronze at the 2012 London Games and another silver last week.
All three medalists crossed inside the former Olympic record of 14 minutes, 40.79 seconds set by Romania’s Gabriela Szabo at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Not surprisingly, the top five finishers were all from Kenya or Ethiopia.
Ayana, completely dominant in the 10,000m, was expected to challenge Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba’s world record of 14 minutes, 11.15 seconds in the 5,000m final. Halfway through, she had taken control after an early break by Japan’s Miyuki Uehara and opened a big gap on the chasers.
However, on a warm night in Rio, Cheruiyot paced herself better, sinking Ayana’s bid for a 5,000m-10,000m double at her first Olympics.
Nikki Hamblin, the runner whose act of sportsmanship alongside the US’ Abbey D’Agostino in the 5,000m heats warmed hearts at the Olympics, finished last in the final in 16 minutes, 14.24 seconds — still a personal best for the New Zealander.
“I went out there and I tried to compete, I tried as hard as I could,” Hamblin said. “I hung on for a while and then the move came and I didn’t have the legs.”
The two were involved in one of the feel-good moments of the Games when they collided in their heat and both tumbled. D’Agostino first helped Hamblin to her feet and encouraged her to finish the race. The US runner then realized she had sustained a bad knee injury. Hamblin returned the favor by helping her, and D’Agostino finished the race while grimacing in pain with torn knee ligaments.
Both runners were given a place in Friday’s final because of the collision, but D’Agostino did not run because of her knee injury.
Hamblin said she would relive the moment on TV.
“Probably have to go back and rewatch it and have a cry about it and relive the Olympic moment,” she said.
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