By Spy Uganda
Jacob Kiplimo delivered on his status as favourite for the Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres title as he won a Games record of 27min 09.19sec to earn Uganda’s fifth consecutive gold in this event on the opening night of athletics.
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Elsewhere on a first evening session witnessed by a capacity 30,000 crowd Australia’s Nina Kennedy won the women’s pole vault, Nigeria’s Chioma Onyekwere earned women’s discus gold and Para-athletics titles went to Olivia Breen of Wales, and home performers Emmanuel Oyinbo-Coker in the men’s T45-47 100m and Hannah Cockroft in the women’s T33/T34 100m.
With three laps to go in the men’s 10,000m final, Uganda’s 21-year-old world and Olympic bronze medallist Kiplimo was pushing on for gold with only Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo for company.
Ebenyo took the lead at the bell, but Kiplimo, the world half marathon champion, stayed at his shoulder around the final bend before bursting back into the lead and pulling clear for a superb win, raising his arm in triumph halfway down the straight.
Ebenyo took silver in 27:11.26 ahead of his compatriot Kibiwott Kandie in 27:20.34 – both personal best times.
Silver went to England’s Molly Caudery on 4.45m, with bronze going on countback to New Zealand’s Imogen Ayris.
Earlier England’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw was forced to abandon her hopes of competing in the women’s pole vault at Birmingham 2022.
Bradshaw had to retire from last month’s World Championship final after injuring her hamstring when her pole snapped in her final warm-up.
Canada’s defending champion Alysha Newman also dropped out of the event after running through her effort at 5.35m.
The first athletics gold medal of the 2022 Commonwealth Games athletics programme went to Breen, who finished ahead of England’s defending champion and world record holder Sophie Hahn to win the women’s T37/T38 100m final in a personal best of 12.83sec, improving on her previous best of 13.01.
