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World record holder Joshua Cheptegei claimed the Olympic 10,000 metres title he so desperately wanted on Friday when he found a late surge to win a fantastic race and take the Games' first track gold.
The 27-year-old Ugandan, who took silver in Tokyo and gold over 5,000m, produced a devastating last 600 metres to come home in 26:43.14 minutes – knocking 18 seconds off Kenenisa Bekele’s 2008 Olympic record.
Berihu Aregawi, part of a three-pronged Ethiopian front-running group almost from the start, finished strongly for silver in 26:43.44 and Grant Fisher took a superb bronze in 26:43.46 - only the United States' fourth medal over the distance since the event was added to the Games in 1912.
A pack of 13 athletes ran the last two thirds of the race together and, remarkably, all of them finished in under 27 minutes as recent advances in shoe and track technology continue to redraw traditional race times.
Cheptegei, world champion in 2019, 2022 and 2023, was surprisingly beaten to gold by Ethiopian Selemon Barega in Tokyo and was desperate for revenge.
Barega, Aregawi and fellow Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha started to stretch the race out after the first few laps and kept up sub-27 minute pace relentlessly to hit halfway in 13.23 minutes.
Frenchman Jimmy Gressier was hanging on to the lead pack of 13, drawing huge noise from the Stade de France crowd and he eventually finished 13th in a huge personal best time and a national record 26:58.67.
Unusually, that pack remained solid for the next half-dozen laps. Cheptegei had stayed tucked behind the leaders as they chopped and changed, but he put the hammer down coming around the final bend on the penultimate lap and did not let up.
"My collection for this run is really complete. I'm so excited," he told reporters.
"Barely 16 years ago when I was watching the great Kenenisa Bekele win in Beijing, it was something that grew in my heart.
"I said, 'one day I want to be Olympic champion'. It is the most special day. I can’t describe the feeling. I’ve wanted this for a long time. When I took silver in Tokyo I was so disappointed. I just wanted to win the 10,000m."
US set World record in 4x400m mixed relay
The United States team broke their own World record in the 4x400m mixed relay in the opening heats, crossing the line in three minutes 7.41 seconds.
They set the previous mark of 3:08.80 at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
The US led midway through the second lap in a text book performance, overcoming a fast field in the opening heat in which four National records were broken on top of the World mark.
"I've gotten quite a few practices in over the last few days and we've just gotten better," said Shamier Little, who ran the second leg for the Americans. "We've got great chemistry."
The French team was willed across the finish by a partisan home crowd at the Stade de France, as they held off Belgium and Jamaica to finish second in 3:10.60s in the rarely contested event.
The 4x400m mixed relay final is set for Saturday.
