Date: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
02 Aug 2022 |REPORT
Yihune showed the vast range of gears synonymous with so many of his countrymen when powering to gold in the 5000m in 14:03.05, but Eritrea showed signs of a rising tide by taking silver and bronze through Merhawi Mebrahtu (14:03.33) and Habtom Samuel (14:03.67).
The race began at a relative jog, with 3000m reached in 8:45.57 – comically slow for athletes of this calibre. From there, things slowly started to heat up with pre-race favourite Yihune moving to the front and the fourth kilometre covered in a steady 2:45.27. The lead changed many times in the laps that followed and there were nine men in the front pack with just over a lap to run. But Yihune simply had too much for his rivals when every one of them went for broke in the last 200m, avenging his fourth-place finish in last year’s world U20 5000m final in Nairobi.