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Lagat’s Second Gold Medal Caps World Championships

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 4:33 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

bernard lagat winning america's first ever 1500m 5000m gold medak double iaaf world championships in osaka japana While critics said he had bitten off more than he could chew, Bernard Lagat swallowed up the field of the men’s 5000m final here tonight, becoming the first man to win both the 1500m and 5000m at an IAAF World Championships in Athletics. He also became the first American to win a 5000m world title.

It mattered not his winning time of 13:45.87 was the slowest in the history of these championships. In fact, it was the painfully slow early pace which set the stage for Lagat to use his unmatched closing speed to clinch the title over Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the 2003 world champion. In a memorable sprint to the finish, Lagat just edged his former compatriot by 13/100ths of a second, running about 52 seconds for the final lap.

“When Eliud started to take the pace… the only thing is I wanted to stay relaxed,” said Lagat.

When asked whether his gold medal was truly American medals because he had switched his citizenship in 2004 from Kenya to the United States, the 32 year-old athlete was blunt. “It’s a simple as this: it’s an American medal.”

Lagat’s two gold medals helped the United States to tie the meet record for the number of gold medals with 14, matching its own tally from 2005 in Helsinki.

Behind the Lagat and Kipchoge, Moses Kipsiro of Uganda edged Matt Tegenkamp of the United states, 13:46.78 to 13:47.33 to collect the bronze medal. Tariku Bekele and Craig Motram, two of the heavy medal favorites, finished fifth and 13th, respectively.

“I was so close,” said Tegenkamp who was competing in his first world championships. “We had it in the back of our minds that it would go out quick, and that one of the countries would sacrifice one of their runners and take out the kickers, and it turned out to be slow. I loved it.”

Also winning tonight with a big kick was Kenyan Alfred Kirwa Yego in the men’s 800m. Canada’s Gary Reed got on the front of the race early, but not to speed it up. He gambled that none of his rivals would pass him early, setting him up for a fast last lap. When he saw 55 seconds on the clock for the first 400m, he knew he had done the right thing.

“I knew it was wide open,” Reed said of the final. “My best chance to win it was off of a slow pace. I have no regrets.”

Reed was the leader nearly to the finish line, but was caught by Yego who won by just 1/100th of a second, 1:47.09 to 1:47.10, the slowest winning time in the history of these championships. Reigning Olympic champion, Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, came from near the back of the field coming out of the final turn to take the bronze medal.

In what was much less of a kicker’s contest, Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal won the 1500m off of an honest pace set by Russian Yelena Soboleva. Nonetheless, the race still came down to the final 100m where the former Ethiopian took her Russian rival, 3:58.75 to 3:58.99. Ukraine’s Iryna Lishchynska finished third.

Photo: Courtesy of USA Today