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Chelimo surprised by slow race
Chelimo is Uganda's lone competitor in the 5000m race. PHOTO/COURTESY
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Chelimo turned up for his second Olympic appearance in Heat 2 and ran calmly to finish fifth in a time of 13 minutes and 52.46 seconds inside the Stade de France.
PARIS, FRANCE. Long-distance runner Oscar Chelimo felt he was let free after he advanced through the men’s 5000 metres Heats during Wednesday morning’s athletics session of the Paris Olympics.
Chelimo turned up for his second Olympic appearance in Heat 2 and ran calmly to finish fifth in a time of 13 minutes and 52.46 seconds inside the Stade de France.
“I am very happy to qualify. Everyone wants to be in the final. This is now the strategy of doing better,” said Chelimo after he had made the top eight automatic slots to Saturday evening’s final.
“The first thing is to qualify. I feel like I am in the Olympics. All the preparation is okay to focus on the final,” the 22-year-old noted.
But Chelimo was surprised that the Heat was quite slow. “I have never run a race like this because we were very slow in the beginning. It was a very tactical race. If I did not have experience, I could have pushed,” he stated.
Chelimo is Jacob Kiplimo’s half-brother. Both Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei, who won the 10000-metre gold medal here in Paris on Friday night, pulled out of the 5000m race.
Their absence never bothered Chelimo. “It was not difficult for me without them because if they were even there, I would have run my race. So it’s just company but you don’t dream together, you dream separately.”
A 5000m bronze medallist from the Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships, Chelimo struggled with a hamstring problem last year.
He showed that he is in a better state after he kept at the back of the Heat with eventual winner Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen until nearly the halfway stage.
When Ingebrigtsen increased the pace, Chelimo too reacted. And with about two laps left, the Ugandan was tucked in 10th place and easily found the fifth place in the home stretch after a bunch of runners collided to the floor.
Ingebrigtsen, who the night before had lost his Olympic 1500m title surprisingly to American Cole Hocker, won the Heat in a time of 13:51.59. Ethiopian Biniam Mehary who had controlled the bigger parts of the 12-and-a-half-lap race finished second.
PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS - SELECTED RESULTS
MEN’S 5000M HEAT 2
1 Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) 13:51.59
2 Biniam Mehary (ETH) 13:51.82
3 Isaac Kimeli (BEL) 13:52.18
4 Grant Fisher (USA) 13:52.44
5 Oscar Chelimo (UGA) 13:52.46
UGANDAN 5000M MALE RUNNERS AT OLYMPICS
Tokyo 2020: Joshua Cheptegei (1st, 12:58.15), Jacob Kiplimo (5th, 13:02.40), Oscar Chelimo (16th, 13:44.45)
Rio 2016: Joshua Cheptegei (8th, 13:09.17), Phillip Kipyeko (Heat 2 11th, 13:24.66), Jacob Kiplimo (Heat 1 11th, 13:30.40)
London 2012: Moses Kipsiro (15th, 13:52.25), Abraham Kiplimo (Heat 2 15th, 13:31.57), Geoffrey Kusuro (Heat 1 18th, 13:59.74)
Beijing 2008: Moses Kipsiro (4th, 13:10.56), Geoffrey Kusuro (Heat 1 11th, 13:50.50)
Mexico City 1968: Mustafa Musa (Heat 2 9th, 15:10.2)
