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TOKYO. — The Olympic stadium opened its doors to the first track and field athletes yesterday, with the first medal going Ethiopia’s way.
Barega, 21, opted to compete in only the 10 000m despite seeing much of his past success over the shorter 5 000m distance, but the risk paid off.
The part-time policeman won in 27 minutes 43.22 seconds, ahead of world champion Cheptegei and his fellow Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo.
Earlier yesterday, the fastest women in the world got the sprint events going in the 100m heats.
Jamaican duo Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah won their respective heats, with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare also through to the semi-finals with ease.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith qualified 11th fastest in a time of 11.07 seconds, behind Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who produced the fastest time of the day — 10.78 seconds.
Sprint events are one of the highlights at any Olympics and Tokyo 2020 will be no different
This year the women’s 100m stands out as one of the most hotly-anticipated race of the Games.
The fastest women on the track, including Britain’s major medal hope Dina Asher-Smith, line up in today’s semi-finals.
BBC athletics commentator Steve Cram says “we’ve got a real contender” in Asher-Smith.
“We haven’t always had somebody with a chance of if not winning it, certainly winning a medal,” said Cram. “Dina knows that she’s going to have to be at her best, but she’s in my top three.”
GB have not had a woman in an Olympic 100m final since 2008.
Jeanette Kwakye, who finished sixth in Beijing, is confident the fastest British woman of all time can win a medal.
“We know, as a 200m world champion, what Dina is capable of, but she’s also exciting as a 100m runner. She is going to have to be at her absolute best to challenge for medals,” she said.
“What we love about Dina and why we are so confident about her medal chances is that she’s a championship performer and a competitor and she knows how to do it.”
After finishing 11th fastest in the heats Asher-Smith will run in the first Tokyo 2020 100m semi-final — against Elaine Thompson-Herah and Blessing Okagbare today.
“We all know Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, we all know Elaine Thompson-Herah. Dina is becoming a big name,” said the 1984 1,500m Olympic silver medallist.
“On the men’s side it is an open race. Anyone who makes the men’s 100m final can probably genuinely line up and think . . .’I could maybe win a medal here’.
“That’s nice in some respects but in terms of bringing attention to the event, it’s not Bolt and it’s not (Justin) Gatlin or even (Yohan) Blake.
“It’s missing some of the characters we’ve got to know over the last 10 years. The women though have got the characters, they’ve got the well-known people.”
Even better, the top contenders are all in the shape of their lives, says former British 100m champion Kwakye.
“It’s super exciting to see them all line up and be ready to go for a 100m that for the first time in a long time is going to overtake what we think about the men. It is so much more exciting than the men’s right now.” — BBC Sport
Online Reporter