PARIS 2024: Silver for Kenya in men's 5000m as Ronald Kwemoi finishes second

First podium finish in the Kenya's men's 5000m since London 2012 by a man who never gave up on his dream after missing out Tokyo Olympics.👏🏽

A big life lesson from 5000m Olympic silver medalist Reynold Kwemoi! 🇰🇪🥈#TeamKenya#HesabikaNaMabingwa pic.twitter.com/Rj4Ea53lcw

— TeamKenya (@OlympicsKe) August 10, 2024

Apart from the long gold drought, Kenya’s recent history in the 12.5 lap race has not been the most inspiring as before Kwemoi’s silver medal in the French capital, Thomas Longosiwa, who bagged bronze in the men’s 5 000 at the 2012 London Olympic Games, was the last Kenyan to feature on the medal podium in the event at the Olympics.

However, the Kenyan-born Paul Chelimo won silver and bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 respectively.

The withdrawal of the formidable Ugandan duo, Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo, on the eve of the  heat races on Wednesday increased Kenya’s hopes of ending their gold medal drought in the event.

Cheptegei, who went into Paris as the event’s reigning champion, withdrew from the heat races together with Kiplimo after failing to recover from the energy-sapping 10 000 metres final on August 1, 2024, in which the Ugandan won the gold medal with an Olympic record time of 26:43.14.

Despite the absence of Cheptegei and Kiplimo raising hopes of a Kenyan victory, the race entered its final lap with not Kenyan featuring anywhere near the medal positions as the the Ethiopian trio Hagos Gebrhiwet, Biniam Mehary, and Addisu Yihune made a daring breakaway with 600 metres to go led by Gebrhiwet.

With the prospect of an Ethiopian 1-2-3 looming, it was the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigsten who was the quickest to react, chasing down the runaway trio until he caught up with Gebrhiwet and overtook.

Triggered by that turn of events, Kwemoi made a go for it, embarking on a lung-bursting run in the final 400 metres as he overtook the three Ethiopians, the Refugee Olympic team’s Dominic Lubalu, and the American Grant Fisher to cap that inspired run with a silver medal which ended Kenya’s accolade drought in the event.

Kwemoi’s medal was Kenya’s second of the night and third of the day, adding to Wanyonyi’s gold medal in the men’s 800 metres and Benson Kipruto’s bronze medal in the marathon.