Viv trio in final

Kenyan girls proceed to Friday’s final

Double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot led Sally Kipyego and Viola Kibiwott into the final of the 5,000m posting impressive times in the heats. Cheruiyot came home second in heat two clocking 15:01.54 behind Ethiopia’ Geleta Burka who timed 15:01.44. Sally Kipyego, the second Kenyan in the heat, was third in 15:01.87. England’s Julia Bleasdale placed fourth in 15:02.00 with USA’S Molly Huddle coming home fifth in 15:02.26 to also qualify for the final. Cheruiyot will be seeking to bounce back after losing the gold medal to Tirunesh Dibaba in the 10,000m final on Friday night.

In that final, Vivian could only manage a bronze medal after having being tipped to carry the day in the 25 lap race. In yesterday’s first heat Viola Kibiwott came third posting 14:59.31. Other qualifiers for Fridays final included Yelena Nagvitsyna of Russia who came home sixth in a time of 15:02.80 with Great Britain’s Joanne Parvey seventh in 15:02.84 with Bahrain’s Shitaye Eshete eighth in 15:05.48. Italy’s Elena Romagnolo was ninth in 15:06.38

Tirunesh also the reigning 5,000m champion carried the day with a superb run to clock 14:58.48 with compatriot and rival Meseret Defar coming home second in 14:58.70. Russia’s Olga Golvkina was fourth in 15:05.26 followed by Julie Cully of the USA (15:05.38) and Tijite Daba of Bahrain (15:05.89). Tirunesh Dibaba was initially picled as a reserve but but was fast tracked to the main Ethiopian trio after retaining her 10000m title on Friday. In her heat yesterday, she took the first step to scoring another distance double when coasting through her qualifier where both races were dominated by East Africans.

Tirunesh the only woman to have previously achieved the double with her victories in Beijing, along with 2004 champion and teammate Meseret and Kenya’s former world Junior cross country winner Kibiwot, were a class above their opponents.“God knows, I’m ready,” the 10000m repeat champion told IAAF. “Meseret is ready and the gold medal will be in our hands if God is willing.”

Meanwhile Britain’s Phillips Idowu apologised for letting down the home fans on Tuesday after the former world triple jump champion crashed out in qualifying. “I have seen the crowd give so much support this week and I accept I let them down,” said Idowu, who never looked comfortable and registered only two of his three jumps. “You guys have seen me over a number of years, and this wasn’t me. Not a great competition. My main goal was to deal with being pain free. The timing wasn’t there for me,” he told reporters.

America’s 22-year-old world champion and gold medal favourite Christian Taylor topped qualifying with a jump of 17.21 metres, followed by 2008 bronze medallist Leevan Sands of Bahamas (17.17m). Idowu’s participation in his home Games and fourth Olympics had been in doubt after the 33-year-old pulled out of the national athletics team’s final training camp with a hip injury. While the Beijing silver medallist had defended his preparations, he failed to make the qualifying mark of 17.10m, finishing outside the top 12 in 14th place with a best jump of 16.53m.