by Justin Lagat
The tough qualification times to get into the world championships are making the qualification rounds at the championships as hard as well for all the runners, especially in the distance races.
The first event on track in the evening was the men’s 5000m heats.
Mohamed Katir of Spain won the first heat in 13:35.90 ahead of Hagos Gebrhiwet and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, respectively. The second heat was even faster, with Luis Grijalva running 13:32.72 to win it, while Yomif Kejelcha was second, and Mohammed Ahmed finished third.
There is a close relationship between the 1500m and the 5000m distances as the medalists from the 1500m race, except Josh Kerr, who was the winner, all featured and proceeded to the final. Narve Nordas was 8th in the first heat, with nine runners finishing within a second.
Tonight’s heats were run as hard as the finals would be run. Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir, who is ranked number five in the world according to the World Athletics rankings and who won the Kenyan trials, could not make it to the finals. He was the one who started the surge in the first heat with about five laps to go, but still, a huge pack was just behind him.
The final of the men’s 5000m will be on the 27th, the last day of the championships.
Slimane Moula of Algeria ran 1:43.93 to win the first heat of the men’s 800m, in which the first seven runners all dived across the finish line within one second. Tshepiso Masalela took the other automatic qualification in 1:44.14.
Canada’s Marco Arop won the second heat in 1:44.02 after leading the race from gun to tape. Djamel Sedjati ensured there would be two Algerians in the final as he registered 1:44.49 for second.
The third heat went to Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya, who ran the fastest time of all the heats in 1:43.83, followed by Adrian Ben of Spain in 1:43.92.
USA’s Bryce Hoppel, who ran 1:44.04, and Ben Pattison of Great Britain, who ran 1:44.23 in the second heat, were the two non-automatic qualifiers.
The final of the 800m race will be on Saturday 26th.
