ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S Birhanu Balew will be going for gold today in the men’s 5,000 metres final on the concluding day of the World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.
The medal race is scheduled for a 1.47pm start, Bahrain time.
Balew is one of 16 athletes in the run. He secured his spot after placing third in the event’s second of two first-round heats.
The 29-year-old will be looking to bag the first-ever world medal of his career and add to the two already clinched in Tokyo by Bahrain, which include 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 heads into the 5,000m final with a season’s best of 12:48.67, which is also his personal best and is an Asian and Bahraini record. The other athletes in the race are headlined by reigning world and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway and Isaac Kimeli from Belgium, who was the fastest from the opening phase.
The rest of the field includes Mathew Kipchumba Kipsang from Kenya, Valentin Soca from Uruguay, Mike Foppen from the Netherlands, Ky Robinson from Australia, George Mills from the UK, Biniam Mehary and Hagos Gebrhiwet from Ethiopia, Yann Schrub, Jimmy Gressier, and Etienne Daguinos from France, and Cole Hocker, Nico Young, and Grant Fisher from the US.
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