Caleb Mwangangi leads 5,000m trio into Saturday’s final

IN BEIJING

Three Kenyans on Wednesday romped into the finals of 5000 metres increasing the country’s chances of bagging more medals in the 15th edition of the World Champion in Beijing, China.

Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku, veteran Edwin Soi and Isaiah Kiplagat Koech will now battle it out with Briton Mohammed “Mo” Farah and Ethiopia’s 18-year-old world leader Yomif Kejelcha, Dejen Gebremeskel and Imane Merga.

Mo Farah had two body contacts in the race that almost threw him out of balance. He had to struggle to avoid tumbling in the second incident. It also happened to him on Saturday in the 10,000m final.

(READ: Farah stumbles into 5,000m final)

Mwangangi who got into these championships via a wild card for winning last season’s Diamond League series declared, “The buffalo is out of the woods and they should expect a good fight in the final”. The finals will be on Saturday.

Mwangangi said he had raced few races this season after he was spiked during the Lausanne Diamond League meet.

This made him not to run at the national trials at the Safaricom stadium, Kasarani end of July. He said he was very comfortable with the hot sun in Beijing since he hails from hot area (Ukambani) where he can go “without water like a camel”.

In the women’s 800m, only the defending champion Eunice Sum advanced to the semis. The other Kenyan runners in the race Janeth Jepkosgei and Margaret Nyairera did not go beyond the heats.

Sum blasted home first in heat two in 1:59.67 thus pulling with her Olha Lyakhova of Ukraine to a season’s best of 1:59.92. Sifan Hassan of Netherlands who seeking her second medal after bronze in 1500m women was third in 1:59.94. “I cannot talk anything about the final because my concern now is how to reach finals”, Sum said. Final will be on Saturday.

Jepkosgei finished fourth in heat four in 2:01.40 where only the top three automatic qualifiers made it.