Vivian leads Kenya charge in 5,000m

It’s another girls’ night out on Friday night and Kenyans will be praying that the party continues into the wee hours to celebrate victory in two potentially elusive track events.

The Kenyan duo of double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot and Sally Kipyego, a silver medallist in the 10,000m here, will be joined by Viola Jelagat Kibiwott in their quest to gag on-fire Tirunesh Dibaba in the final of the 5,000m from 8.05pm (10.05pm Kenyan time).

The eagerly anticipated race will be followed 50 minutes later by the women’s 1,500m where Kenya has a lone ranger in World Indoor champion, Hellen Obiri, of the Kenya Defence Forces.

Dibaba already has a gold medal safely tucked away in the Olympic Village after she won the 10,000m on the opening night of track and field action, and will be joined in the menacing green, red and yellow colours of Ethiopia by 2004 Athens gold medallist Meseret Defar and former cross country short course winner, Gelete Burka.

And while the 5,000m battle will be a tough one for Kenya, the 1,500m will offer a more difficult proposition as Obiri races singly against another Ethiopian, Abeba Aregawe, who has been in stupendous form this season with a 3:56.54 making her the fastest in the field.

Tonight’s finals come after yesterday’s action that saw the Kenya men’s 4x400m relay team of Boniface Mweresa, Vincent Mumo, Boniface Mucheru and Alphas Kishioyan disqualified after allegedly impeding their opponents.