Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet continued her remarkable run of form by storming to the second-fastest women’s 5000m in history at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, the fifth Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season, in Rome on Friday (6).
Less than two weeks on from a performance in Rabat that moved her to second on the world 3000m all-time list, the 25-year-old repeated the feat over 5000m – running a national record of 14:03.69 to miss the world record by just three seconds.
Only Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, with her world record of 14:00.21 set in Eugene in 2023, has ever gone faster. Chebet – who was previously No.3 all time with the 14:05.92 she ran to finish runner-up to Tsegay in that race in Eugene, has jumped ahead of her compatriot Faith Kipyegon, the former world record-holder (14:05.20), with this latest performance.
Chebet won the race by more than 15 seconds. Two-time world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu finished second in a PB of 14:19.33 and Nadia Battocletti delighted the home crowd with an Italian record of 14:23.15 for third place. Birke Haylom was fourth in 14:24.20 and Tsegay finished fifth on this occasion, clocking 14:24.86.
“I just said: ‘Let’s run my own race today.’ I was planning to run 14:15, but I felt like my body was moving and I decided to go,” said Chebet, the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion who already has two world records on her CV, in the 10,000m and road 5km.
“I see that my body is in good shape, and I am capable of the world record, so now I am going home and will prepare for it. Everything is possible – if I get someone who will push me up to 3000m, it is possible.”
Chebet followed closely as the pacemakers ran right on the planned meeting record (14:12.59) pace – reaching 1000m in 2:50.06 and 2000m in 5:41.45. She led a breakaway group of five at 3000m – passed in 8:32.20 – and was well in control.
She kicked with four laps to go and picked up the pace – running 2:46 for the fourth kilometre and 2:45 for the fifth.
“Today, I wanted to try and see how fast I can go when I push a lot,” she added. “Soon, I am going for a time under 14 (minutes).
“I can say I also helped the others to achieve their personal bests and national records today. It helped a lot. I have to congratulate the others as well, because without them, it would not be possible to run that race.”
It was a race of record depth, with the top 14 all finishing under 14:50.
The men’s 1500m also featured great depth, with Azeddine Habz and Timothy Cheruiyot leading the way to push each other to the two fastest 1500m times in the world so far this season.
Kenya’s Cheruiyot, the 2019 world champion, was narrowly ahead as they hit the home straight, but France’s Habz launched an attack and saved just enough for a final surge to deny Cheruiyot by just 0.03 – 3:29.72 to 3:29.75.
There were lifetime best performances all the way down the field, Morocco’s Anass Essayi finishing third in a big PB of 3:30.74, and Germany’s Robert Farken and Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom setting respective national records of 3:30.80 and 3:30.87 in fourth and fifth. All 16 members of the field finished inside 3:33.
Bromell makes a statement
USA’s Trayvon Bromell also achieved a world lead to win the 100m, running his fastest time since 2022. The 2016 world indoor 60m champion and two-time world 100m bronze medallist clocked 9.84 (1.1m/s) for a comfortable victory ahead of Emmanuel Eseme (9.99).
The men’s 400m was much closer – South Africa’s world leader Zakithi Nene and Olympic champion Quincy Hall battling all the way to the line before Hall dipped to deny his rival by 0.01 with a winning time of 44.22.
The gap between the top two was just thousandths in the men’s 110m hurdles. Switzerland’s Jason Joseph flew off the final hurdle to triumph, holding off USA’s world leader Cordell Tinch, who hit the final barrier, and they both crossed the finish line in 13.14.
Jamaica’s world finalist Andrenette Knight claimed a clear win in the 400m hurdles, clocking 53.67 ahead of Italy’s Ayomide Folorunso in 54.21, while USA’s Anavia Battle won the 200m in 22.53 (0.8m/s) ahead of Great Britain’s Amy Hunt (22.67).
The women’s 1500m got off to a blistering start but the pace eased off and it turned into a tactical battle, Ireland’s Sarah Healy coming through for the win in 3:59.17 ahead of Australia’s Sarah Billings and Abbey Caldwell as the top five finished inside four minutes.
Allman throws meeting record, Adcock saves best leap for last
Two-time Olympic champion Valarie Allman maintained her win streak in the discus, throwing a meeting record of 69.21m to triumph by more than two-and-a-half metres. Cuba’s 2019 world champion Yaime Perez was runner-up with 66.63m – those top two marks both coming in the fifth round.
New Zealand’s Tom Walsh clinched his first win since claiming his third world indoor shot put title in Nanjing in March. He threw 21.89m in the first round and that remained the best of the contest – securing him top spot ahead of Italy’s Zane Weir (21.67m) and Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell (21.64m).
There was an exciting end to the men’s long jump. Home favourite Mattia Furlani, the world indoor champion, only secured a spot in the final three at the last opportunity – jumping 8.07m in the fifth round. That matched the best mark achieved at that stage by Australia’s Liam Adcock as they trailed Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou by three centimetres, and while Tentoglou couldn’t improve in the final round, Furlani launched himself ahead with a leap of 8.13m. Adcock wasn’t done, though, and with the last jump of the competition he set a PB of 8.34m for victory.
Sandi Morris won the pole vault with her third-time clearance of 4.75m before also managing 4.80m on her third and final attempt, while her fellow two-time world indoor gold medallist Woo Sanghyeok won the high jump with a first-time clearance of 2.32m.
Jamaica’s Olympic and two-time world silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts topped a triple jump contest featuring multiple global medallists, leaping 14.64m to beat world indoor champion Leyanis Perez (14.46m) and Olympic champion Thea LaFond (14.30m).
