by Justin Lagat
Justin loved the Women’s Commonwealth 10,000 meters!
If there will be a poll at the end of the Games to rate the best performance, the women’s 10,000m final will definitely feature prominently.
The last 2 laps of the race turned into a stunning duel between Kenya’s Irene Cheptai and Scotland’s Eilish McColgan. It was a very long finishing kick to the line as Cheptai seemed to be taking advantage of the inside lane and trying her best to hold off McColgan from overtaking and getting the same advantage. The two were definitely giving their all for the win, but Cheptai faltered a bit with 50m to go on the home stretch, and McColgan powered past and went for the win in a new Commonwealth Games record of 30:48.60.
All the top seven from this amazing track final broke the past record of 31:27.83 that was being held by Kenya’s Selina Kosgei since 2002. Cheptai took the silver medal in 30:49.52 ahead of compatriot Sheila Chepkirui who took the bronze medal in 31:09.46.
The last time Eilish McColgan caused a huge upset to some of the world’s best distance runners was when she had made an early break in Hengelo before winning the race in an amazing time of 30:19.02. She appeared to want a repeat of the same as she controlled the race from the early stages.
The only difference here was that two Kenyans, Cheptai and Sheila Chepkirui, were not giving her any space and were happy to follow her. Uganda’s Stellah Chesang, the defending champion, was just behind the three in a single file of 8 runners with 15 laps to go.
With 10 laps to go, Chepkirui led Cheptai past McColgan, and the three of them began to open a gap on the rest of the field, and it became a matter of time before we would know the color of their medals.
Ferdinand Omanyala finally delivered the first gold medal for Kenya at the Games in the men’s 100m final after running an amazing 10.02 against South Africa’s Akani Simbine’s 10.13 for the silver medal and 10.14 of Yupun Abeykoon of Sri Lanka who settled for the bronze medal.
The men’s 100m was set to be a battle between Africa’s fastest man and the defending champion after South Africa’s Akani Simbine had won the first heat of the semi-finals in 10.07 while the second heat was won by Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala in 10.02. Mitchell Blake of England won the third semi-final in 10.13. In the final, the two protagonists were placed next to each other; Omanyala in lane 3 and Simbine in lane 4
