Pace Sports Management

Latest News

Golds for Usain Bolt & Vivian Cheruiyot

Berlin, 22nd August 2009 - A third gold medal for Usain Bolt (JAM), a first for Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) and a bronze for Simeon Williamson (GBR) highlighted Day 8 of the 2009 IAAF World T&F Championships. If Usain is the biggest star then Vivian is the smallest one but they share the same talent and determination to success. Running the third leg in the 4x100m Bolt passed the baton to Asafa Powell in the lead and the result was inevitable as they crossed the line in 37.31 secs for the second fastest time ever. Simeon Williamson ran an excellent first leg to help the British team to the bronze medals in 38.02. A last lap of 58 secs was enough for Vivian Cheruiyot to take the 5000m glory and equal the feat of her training partner and close friend Linet Masai who won the 10,000m earlier in the week.

4x100m Report from www.iaaf.org -

Two out of three ain't bad! When a man runs World sprint records of 9.58 and 19.19 in the space of a week, he can be forgiven for missing out on a third world record. After all, a time of 37.31 in the 4x100m Relay is nothing to be sniffed at - it's the second-fastest performance of all time! Another gold medal is always nice, too.

With three-quarters of the dream team from Beijing last year (the only change being Steve Mullings on first instead of Nesta Carter), it initially seemed as though the Jamaican speedsters had got off to a sluggish start. Drawn in lane seven, they did not seem to be gaining any distance in the first half of the race on Trinidad & Tobago drawn in the lane inside of Jamaica. On reflection afterwards, however, it was more to do with the fact that Trinidad & Tobago were flying too!

It was only when the baton was handed from second-leg runner Michael Frater to Usain Bolt that Jamaica edged ahead. A smooth changeover to Asafa Powell gave them a lead that only grew bigger and bigger on the home straight as they stopped the clock in 37.31. Olympic silver medallists Trinidad & Tobago, with a team that featured two 100m finalists, were a few metres behind with a time of 37.62. For Darrel Brown, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callander and Richard Thompson, it was an improvement of 0.38 seconds on the national record they set last year. It is also a performance that even sprint powerhouse USA has only bettered on seven occasions. That tally could have been eight, had the USA been present in the final. After yesterday's heats, Great Britain lodged a protest over the US team's final changeover and it was discovered to have been faulty. It meant the defending champions were out, along with the chance of a mouth-watering three-way showdown between Jamaica, USA and Trinidad & Tobago.

The British team held on for bronze with a season's best of 38.02, using the same team they had in the heats - Simeon Williamson, Tyrone Edgar, Marlon Devonish and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. Japan - fielding a team of Masashi Eriguchi, Naoki Tsukahara, Shinji Takahira and Kenji Fujimitsu - were unable to match their bronze medal from last year's Olympics, but finished strongly to clock a season's best of 38.30. Former Olympic champions Canada clocked their fastest performance in 11 years with a time of 38.39. Their team comprised Sam Effah, Seyi Smith, Jared Connaughton and Brian Barnett. Italy's full-strength team which impressed in the previous round ran marginally slower than they did in yesterday's heats. Their 38.54 was good enough for sixth. Brazil, fourth at the last two global championships, could not quite match their finish from Osaka and Beijing and had to settle for seventh in 38.56. Former World champions France, meanwhile, did not fare so well and the impressive anchor-leg ability of Christophe Lemaitre was not enough to get them into the race. The team was eighth in 39.21.

With Jamaica now in possession of the two fastest performances of all-time, you can't help but wonder how long it will be before the USA regains their position as the leading sprint relay nation. Maybe when Bolt retires.

5000m Report from www.iaaf.org -
Are we seeing a gradual shift in the power of women's distance running? Like the 10,000m on the opening day of the championships it was Kenya and not Ethiopia who took gold as Vivian Cheruiyot led home a Kenyan one-two with Meseret Defar, the dethroned champion, taking only bronze. Cheruiyot was simply too swift for the rest down the home straight as she out-kicked the opposition to win in 14:57.97 - the second slowest winning time in the history of the event at the World Championships. Her compatriot Sylvia Kibet passed a fading Defar to snatch silver in 14:58.33 with Defar having to be satisfied with bronze 0.08 further back.

Vivian Cheruiyot became the first ever Kenyan athlete to lift this title and coming hot off the heels of her team-mate Linet Masai's triumph in the 10,000m it represents a major triumph for Kenya's women. Ethiopia have been the dominant force in women's distance for more than a decade but this was the first time they have failed to win either a women's 5000m or 10,000m World Championship gold since 1997. The bulk of the race - except perhaps the final stages - will not linger long in the memory, however. Japan's Yurika Nakamura took the field through the first kilometre in 3:06.02 before Defar and then her countrywoman Sentayehu Ejigu took their turn at the front - the latter leading them through 2km in (6:11.04). A phalanx of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners were prominent for much of the second half of the race but the pace was modest. Cheruiyot and her team-mates Kibet and Iness Chenonge all took a turn at the front but an illustration of the far from scintillating speed at the front was the fact with four laps remaining all the field - bar Hungary's Krisztina Papp who was out the back of the field - were still bunched together.

Cheruyiot chose to control the race from the front and with 800m left she led her two Kenyan team-mates, four Ethiopians - Defar, Ejigu, Genzebe Defar and Meselech Melkamu, the World 10,000m silver medallist, with the one non-African Sara Moreira of Portugal in a lead group of eight. In was still Cheruiyot at the bell when, predictably, the fireworks began. The long-time leader as well as Defar and Kibet kicked well clear of the remainder and it was obvious with 250m left the battle for the medals would be determined between the trio. Defar loomed on Cheruiyot's shoulder around the final bend and by the time the 2007 World Champion entered the home straight she held a two metre lead. However, this was not to be the Defar of old who so often regularly extended her advantage. No, she took a concerned glance behind and for her it was to be 'groundhog day' and a virtual repeat of what happened in the 10,000m final on the opening night of the championships. On that occasion she looked favoured to win coming off the final bend but faded to fifth.

Tonight Cheruiyot, the 2007 World silver medallist, would not be denied and slowly closed the gap on the Ethiopian. With 40m remaining the Kenyan edged ahead and Defar could not respond. It was Cheruyiot, who stands at just 1.55m tall, who was to be crowned champion. A demoralised Defar slowed towards the line and Kibet, who had finished an agonising fourth in the 2007 World and 2008 Olympic finals, just pipped the Ethiopian for the sweetest of silvers. Some way behind the three medallists, Sentayehu Ejigu of Ethiopia took fourth in 15:03.38 with her countrywoman Melkamu fifth in 15:03.72. The third of the Kenyans Iness Chenonge took sixth in 15:06.06. The top non-African was Italy's Silvia Weissteiner, who was seventh in a season's best of 15:09.74.