ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S Birhanu Balew marched through to the medal round of the men’s 5,000 metres yesterday at the World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.
Balew secured his spot after placing third in the event’s ultra-competitive second of two heats, held at the nearly 70,000-capacity National Stadium in the Japanese capital.
The 29-year-old distance-running specialist will next be competing in the final, which will be held tomorrow as part of the worlds’ concluding day’s programme.
He will be looking to bag the first-ever world medal of his career and add to the two already clinched by Bahrain in Tokyo, including the silver medal of Wilfred Yavi in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase and the bronze of Salwa Eid Naser in the women’s 400m.
Balew is the kingdom’s lone men’s athlete at this year’s championships and is the last Bahraini competing as the prestigious meeting winds down.
Running a methodical race, Balew paced himself in the middle of the 21-athlete field yesterday for the opening 2,000m. He fell further behind at the 3,000m mark but began to make a push to the front heading into the final two-and-a-half laps.
Balew was then hot on the heels of leaders Grant Fisher from the US and Biniam Mehary from Ethiopia with the last 800m remaining, and although he dropped to fifth at the bell, put in a sensational closing kick down the home straight to take third on the race classification in 13 minutes 41.75 seconds – just two-tenths of a second behind heat winner Mehary, who was first in 13:41.52.
Such was the hotly contested nature of the race that the top 10 were separated by just a second in a chaotic finish – but only the leading eight advanced to the final.
France’s Jimmy Gressier was just ahead of Balew in 13:41.64, while the Bahraini star narrowly pipped George Mills from the UK, who came fourth in 13:41.76.
Valentin Soca from Uruguay came fifth in 13:41.80, Fisher was sixth in 13:41.83, and France’s Yann Schrub seventh in 13:42.00. Completing the top eight as the last qualifier from the heat was reigning world and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway.
Winning a much-quicker heat one to spearhead the other eight athletes to qualify for the final was Isaac Kimeli from Belgium in 13:13.06. Mathew Kipchumba Kipsang from Kenya followed in 13:13.33, while Cole Hooker from the US came third in 13:13.41, his countryman Nico Young was fourth in 13:13.51, and Ky Robinson from Australia was fifth in 13:13.60.
Ranked sixth through eighth, respectively, were Hagos Gebrhiwet from Ethiopia in 13:13.73, Mike Foppen from the Netherlands in 13:13.97, and Etienne Daguinos from France in 13:14.87.
Tomorrow’s 5,000m final is scheduled for a 1.50pm start, Bahrain time.
Balew heads into the medal race with a season’s best of 12:48.67, which is also his personal best and which is an Asian and Bahraini record.
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