Chebet and Perez double up on penultimate day in Tokyo
TOKYO Beatrice Chebet and Maria Perez both produced a repeat performance of their previous global doubles on day eight of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
Chebet, who won the 10,000m earlier in the championships, added the 5000m title to her collection, replicating her double victory from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Perez, meanwhile, added the 20km race walk gold to the 35km crown she’d won on the opening day of the championships.
On what proved to be a good day for Kenya, Emmanuel Wanyonyi took the men’s 800m title in a championship record in a race of unprecedented depth.
Anna Hall was another pre-event favourite who lived up to her billing, the US all-rounder taking the heptathlon title. There were also victories from Jessica Schilder in the shot put, Juleisy Angulo in the javelin and Caio Bonfim in the 20km race walk.
Beatrice Chebet beat her teammate and close friend Faith Kipyegon, winner of the 1500m at these championships and the defending champion at this distance, to take 5000m gold and add it to the 10,000m crown from earlier in the championships.
In a relatively slow but tactical race, Kipyegon and Chebet sat on the shoulder of Italy’s Nadia Battocletti on the final lap before kicking away in the closing stages.
Chebet crossed the line in 14:54.36 and Kipyegon followed in 14:55.07. Battocletti, the 10,000m runner-up, claimed bronze in 14:55.42, meaning all podium finishers earned their second medal of the championships.
Just as she had done in Budapest, Maria Perez made more history in Tokyo. The Spaniard achieved her second world race walk title double, retaining her 20km crown to go with the 35km gold she claimed on the first day of competition.
The 29-year-old is now a four-time world champion and a two-time Olympic medallist, and she secured her latest title in 1:25:54 – the second-fastest time of her career.
She was chased over the finish line by Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez in a North American record of 1:26:06. Nanako Fujii delighted the home fans by earning bronze in a Japanese record of 1:26:18 – her nation’s first medal in this event in World Championships history.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi led a field of record depth to win the 800m title at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, setting a championship record of 1:41.86 to add world gold to his Olympic title.
The Kenyan 21-year-old managed to hold off a fierce challenge from Canada’s defending champion Marco Arop and a fast-finishing Djamel Sedjati of Algeria. It was Sedjati who stormed through for silver in 1:41.90 and Arop got bronze in 1:41.95.
Cian McPhillips ran a big Irish record of 1:42.15 to finish fourth, ahead of Mohamed Attaoui, Max Burgin, Navasky Anderson and Tshepiso Masalela.
It is the first time that eight men have ever dipped under 1:43 in a single race.
World leader Anna Hall became the first US woman to win a world heptathlon title in 32 years, taking gold with 6888.
She led from the second event and continued to extend her lead with almost every discipline. She ran 13.05 in the 100m hurdles, cleared 1.89m in the high jump, threw 15.80m in the shot, ran 23.50 in the 200m, jumped 6.12m in the long jump, threw a PB of 48.13m in the javelin and finished by winning the 800m in 2:06.08.
Kate O’Connor smashed the Irish record to take silver with 6714. Defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson shared bronze with USA’s Taliyah Brooks, both scoring 6581.
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