Ethiopia's Barega wins men's 10,000m

Ethiopia's Selemon Barega clinched the first athletics gold medal at Tokyo 2020 after winning the men's 10,000m at Tokyo Olympic Stadium here on Friday, reported Xinhua.

Barega carried the great tradition of his country by winning Ethiopia's sixth Olympic gold medal in the men's 10,000m.

Barega ran a controlled, tactical race by staying in touch with the leaders while sitting in the middle of the pack before pulling in front on the final back straight. He stormed a 53-second final lap to hold off favorite and reigning world champion Joshua Cheptegei towards the end.

Barega crossed the line in 27 minutes and 43.22 seconds, just ahead of Cheptegei (27:43.63) and another Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo (27:43.88).

At the age of 21 years old and 191 days, Barega became the youngest male athlete representing Ethiopia to win an Olympic gold medal.

"It means a lot to me because I have been practicing a lot," he said, adding that he's setting eyes on his next target: "I hope to break the world record in the future."

Incumbent world record holder Cheptegei took the lead with 5 laps to go in the race but fell short of winning the top prize.

He said he would have been in the prime if the Olympic Games was held as scheduled a year ago, as he has faced some challenges mentally and physically to stay on the top since then. But he remained satisfied with his performance.

"To me, to have the silver medal this time around, I have no regret and I am grateful," he said.

Chinese athletics team also made debuts at Tokyo 2020 on Friday. Led by favorite Gong Lijiao, three Chinese shot putters qualified for the finals on Sunday.

"I don't want to push myself to be too excited today. My target is to achieve qualification with one attempt, and I did it," said Gong, who qualified with 19.46 meters.

Otherwise, it is a mixed result for the Chinese team. Wang Chunyu managed to advance to the women's 800m semifinals. Among the three Chinese athletes who competed in the women's 100m preliminary round, only Ge Manqi made it to the next round. Wang Yu also failed in men's high jump qualification.