Beatrice Chebet delights crowd with women’s 5000m world lead

After Mary Moraa had delighted the vocal Kenyan contingent in the crowd in the 800m, recently-crowned cross country world champion Beatrice Chebet had them cheering again by sprinting clear to win the women’s 5000m in a world lead time of 14:26.98.

Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye was second after a brave front-running performance, shaking off the remainder of her rivals one by one, but was unable to keep Chebet at bay.

There was more joy for Kenyan fans as their runners finished 1-2-3 in the men’s 1500m. Olympic silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot managed to shrug off namesake Reynold, but it was Brian Komen who came home fastest to win in 3:32.43.

The final track event of the night, the 3000m steeplechase, witnessed another thrilling duel between Kenya and Ethiopia. And it was Ethiopia who came out on top this time with Samuel Firewu taking victory in a world lead 8:07.25 from Abraham Kibiwot.

On a windy start to the evening, Carey McLeod picked his moment to take the long jump. With a following wind of 5.2m/s, well over the 2m/s legal limit, the Jamaican went out to 8.52m in the fourth round. Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou had to settle for second with a legal jump of 8.36m.

World indoor pole vault champion Molly Caudery jumped 4.73m to secure a first Diamond League success. Australia’s world champion Nina Kennedy also cleared 4.73m at the first attempt, with both women going on to have three failures at 4.83m, but the Briton’s blemish-free card until then saw her take the win.

Serbian teenager Angelina Topić cemented her status as one of the rising stars of track and field with victory in the high jump. The 18-year-old daughter of former European champion Dragutin Topić had a perfect card culminating in a first-time clearance at 1.94m. She then had three failures at what would have been a new personal best of 1.98m.

Iryna Gerashchenko was second ahead of Australia’s 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson with both women jumping 1.91m.

Czech thrower Jakub Vadlejch took the men’s javelin just ahead of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra.

The Indian almost snatched victory with his final attempt, but he was just two centimetres shy of Vadlejch’s third-round throw of 88.38m.