Kenya secured a sixth spot finish during the just concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England as Julius Yego claimed the country’s last medal at the global stage with a bronze medal in the men's javelin.
The former javelin World Champion registered a season's best of 85.7m in the final day but it was not enough as he had to settle for the bronze medal behind winner Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan (90.18m) and silver medallist Anderson Peters of Grenada (88.64m).
The bronze is Yego's second medal at the Commonwealth Games, following a gold medal at the 2014 Glasgow Games in Scotland.
Yego at the time beat the Olympic champion, Keshorn Walcott, with a distance of 83.87 m. He also became the first Kenyan athlete to win a Commonwealth title in a field event.
Yego's bronze medal came only minutes after Kenya clinched her final gold medal courtesy of Beatrice Chebet. The 22-year-old comfortably crossed the 5,000m finish line in a time of 14:38.21.
In what was her Season's Best (SB), Chebet finished a whole four seconds ahead of silver medallist Eilish McColgan of Scotland (14:42.14) and compatriot Selah Busienei (14:48.24) who claimed the bronze medal.
Before the race, focus was all on McColgan who had just come from winning gold in the 10,000m a few days back and for a few laps it sure did seem like she was going to take the crown.
For 4,800m of the race, the Scot was comfortably in control of the race. She was however, followed closely by the two Kenyans who stuck to her like industrial glue.
With 200 metres to go, it seemed like McColgan was once again going to deny Kenya a gold medal, however Chebet had other plans.
Fresh from winning silver at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Chebet kicked off the after burners with 200m to go to comfortably pass McColgan before creating a huge gap that left the stadium buzzing.
With 100m to go, Chebet kicked her little steps up and the Scot’s attempt to respond failed flat. Chebet's gold medal was Kenya's second of the day after Wycliffe Kinyamal defended her 800m crown.
Heading into the race, Peter Bol of Australia was the race favourite and indeed the 28-year-old was in the mix for most of the race, but Kinyamal started to make his move with around 250 metres left.
Kinyamal put his foot down at the home stretch, blistering through in emphatic pace to wade off a last minute challenge from Bol, but cruised to victory in 1:47.52.
Bol took the silver in 1:47.66 while Ben Pattison of England earned bronze at third in 1:48.25. Kinyamal's gold added to Kenya's overall 21 gold medal haul from the Games.
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