Uganda\u2019s Joshua Cheptegei withstood surging Ethiopian team tactics to claim gold in the men\u2019s Olympic 10,000-metre at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three-time world champion timed an Olympic record of 26 minutes and 43.14 seconds for victory on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethiopia\u2019s Berihu Aregawi edged American Grant Fisher by two-hundredths of a second to take silver in 26:43.44.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world record holder added the Olympic 10,000 metres title to his remarkable haul to take the Games\u2019 first track gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ugandan, who took silver in Tokyo and gold over 5,000 metres, produced a devastating last 600 metres and his finishing time took 18 seconds off Kenenisa Bekele\u2019s 2008 Olympic record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aregawi, who had been part of a three-pronged Ethiopian front-running group almost from the start, finished strongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A pack of 13 athletes ran the last two-thirds of the race together and, remarkably, all of them finished in under 27 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first surge came after just two laps of the 25-lap race, defending champion Selemon Barega and Ethiopian teammate Yomif Kejelcha accelerating away to split the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 25-strong field dissipated but all runners held on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aregawi had his turn after Kejelcha as the Ethiopian trio dictated the pace in front of a noisy near-capacity 69,000 crowd at the Stade de France in perfect warm conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo saw their team tactics take a dent when Martin Magengo Kiprotich fell off the pace early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aregawi and Kejelcha again increased the rhythm through the halfway stage, the main pack now cut to 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barega was back at the helm with 10 laps to run, Canada\u2019s Mohammed Ahmed and Kenya\u2019s Benard Kibet muscling their way through to sit on Kejelcha\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Cheptegei and Fisher made their way up through a bunching pack, Kejelcha was again on hand to offer a spurt of acceleration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Into the last kilometre, Aregawi took up the running, but the race promised a pulsating finish as the pack of 12 all clung on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just before the bell rang for the final 400 metres, Cheptegei surged to the front and the race to the line was on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed followed and Fisher fell off the pace, but made a remarkable recovery to medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no coup de grace for Barega, however, as Cheptegei held on for victory in the first medal event at France\u2019s national stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uganda\u2019s Joshua Cheptegei withstood surging Ethiopian team tactics to claim gold in the men\u2019s Olympic 10,000-metre at the Stade de France. The three-time world champion timed an Olympic record of 26 minutes and 43.14 seconds for victory on Friday. Ethiopia\u2019s Berihu Aregawi edged American Grant Fisher by two-hundredths of a second to take silver in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,4],"tags":[7,14,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-39393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-featured","9":"category-sports","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n