Two Olympic gold medals in the 1500 meters, three world championship at this distance and one in the 5,000 meters. These are all achievements of Kenyan Faith Kipyegon since 2016. The 30-year-old was one of the main favorites for gold in the 5,000 meters, which took place on Monday evening at the Stade de France at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Faith Kipyegon lost her silver medal, but only for a few hours. Appeal backfired after controversial judges' decision
However, the gold medal went to Kipyegon's compatriot, Beatrice Chebet, who won the race with a time of 14:28.56 m. Kipyegon was second with a time of 14:29.60, and the third place went to the Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan with result 14:30.61 m. The three competitors were celebrating their medals right after the race, posing for photos, and suddenly came the sensational news!
Kipyegon was disqualified for an incident that occurred two laps before the end of the race. At that time, there was a minor scuffle between the Kenyan and Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia. At one point, Tsegay started to overtake the leading Kipyegon and then there was some minor scuffling on both sides, but even on the video it is difficult to tell which of the competitors was using her forearms more.
Ultimately, Kipyegon was disqualified by the judges for this situation, and the athlete herself in the mixed zone could not hold back her tears and only covered herself with the flag with which she had celebrated winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games a dozen or so minutes earlier.
The Kenyan federation did not leave it at that and filed a written appeal against the judges' decision. And it worked! “The Appeal Jury considered all available evidence and agreed that there was significant contact between the players. The Jury found that it did not justify disqualification” – we read in the decision, which was made on the night from Monday to Tuesday.
“The jury would like to emphasize that this type of pushing and shoving is never acceptable, therefore it is recommended that Faith Kipyegon receives a yellow card that will be valid until the end of the Games,” it was emphasized. The Kenyan could thus breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy her silver medal.
Due to the cancellation, the joy of Sifan Hassan, who won silver instead of bronze, and of Italian Nadia Battocletti, who had a bronze medal for a while, but after the cancellation, she had to settle for “only” fourth place in the Olympic competition, were short-lived. final 5000 meters run.