Africa cross country junior champion Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli is the only Kenyan who has qualified to compete in 5,00m final at the ongoing Olympic Games.
Kimeli won the first heat in the qualifying round 13:38:87 ahead of Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed(13:38.96) while William Kincaid of the United States (13:39.04) was third, Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo (13:39.07) and Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew (13:41.62) sealed the other automatic qualifying positions.
But it was disappointing that Daniel Simiu Ebenyo, who stumbled on the course, failing to qualifying after finishing 10th (13:39.04).
Kimeli will be joined by world record holder over the distance Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda who easily finishing 5th in a race won by Spain’s Mohamed Kadir (13:30.10) and USA’s Paul Chelimo (13:30.15).
Canada’s Justyn Knight (13:30.22) and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo (13:30.40) were third and fourth with Cheptegei fifth in 13:40.61.
Kenya’s other representative in the race, Samwel Masai, did not start the race.