Hellen Obiri and Margaret Chelimo bagged the first two medals for Kenya at World Champs with silver and bronze in women 10,000 m.
Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia won the race being staged in Oregon, USA with legendary Sifan Hassan coming in fourth in heated encounter with her old-time rivals.
Gidey who holds world records in the 5000 metres and 10000 metres had to fight to the last stretch as Obiri and Chelimo breathed down her neck.
Courtesy of her win Gidey recorded a world leading time of 30:09.94 while Obiri came in close at 30:10.02.
Chelimo, who had a brilliant race from the start, recorded a personal best time of 30:10.07.
Obiri will perhaps feel undone by events in the last ten meters as she was elbowed by Gidey and this might have denied her a chance for gold.
Kenya is expected to bag more medals after Kenya’s Abel Kipsang, Timothy Cheruiyot and Kumar Taki sailed through to the semi-final of the men’s 1500 metres.
World champion Cheruiyot finished fourth in Heat 1 in a time of 3:36.41 with the World’s fastest man Kipsang coming in third in Heat 3.
In the women’s semi-final, Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon took control of Heat 2 of the semi-final to the Tuesday morning final.
The Kenyan superstar clocked 4:03.98 to glide through ahead of Ethiopia’s Hirut Meshesha (4:04.05).
Another Kenyan Winnie Chebet finished sixth in Heat 1 in a season-best time of 4:03.08 and will also be in the final.