4/5 Chebet can get better of Kenyan rival in 5000m final

THE standard of top-class sport on offer over the last week in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo has been simply mesmerising.

- BY JOHN O'DOWD

It's just a pity that we only have two days of all this drama left to savour.

While the women's 400 metre final on Thursday was undoubtedly one of the greatest races of all time, we could be in line for another special event in the 5,000 metres around lunchtime today.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone showed how special she is with the fastest 400 metres in 40 years to win gold two days ago, and today's duel at a much longer distance is mouthwatering.

Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay and Italy's Nadia Battocletti are superb runners in their own right, but this is all about the two Kenyans, Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon.

Chebet is already the 10,000 metre champion this week. Kipyegon has lifted the 1,500 metre title.

It’s the ‘Smiling Assassin’ against the ‘Smiling Destroyer’ here.

Kipyegon is the reigning 5,000 metre world champion from Budapest in 2023, but Chebet beat her in the Paris Olympics last year.

Chebet is good enough to repeat the job today (4/5).

At roughly 2.20pm today, all Irish eyes will be on Cian McPhillips in the men's 800 metres final, with his stunning semifinal run still very fresh in the memory.