PARIS, France (AFP) — Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei won the 10,000 meters, the first track title of the Paris Olympics, on Friday whilst the United States smashed the 4x400m mixed relay world record in a sparkling opening to the athletics.
Cheptegei produced a record-breaking performance of his own, timing 26 minutes 43.14 seconds to break Kenenisa Bekele’s 16-year-old Olympic record, and make up for his disappointment in finishing runner-up in Tokyo three years ago.
Cheptegei, 27, said his mind had been set on Olympic glory when he watched Bekele win the title in Beijing in 2008.
“When I was watching the great Kenenisa Bekele win in Beijing, it was something that grew in my heart,” he said.
“I said, one day, one time, I want to be Olympic champion. The most special day.”
The United States set their world record in the heats of the relay.
The quartet timed 3:07.41, eclipsing the previous best of 3:08.80, set when the US won world gold in Budapest last year.
Lead-off runner Vernon Norwood said it was the ideal curtain-raiser for the mighty United States track and field team.
“We set the tone for the rest of the United States with that world record,” Norwood said.
Sha’Carri Richardson will be the first to see if she can follow it up when she bids to add the Olympic title to her world crown on Saturday.
The 24-year-old — aiming to become the first American since Gail Devers in 1996 to win Olympic 100m gold — had little trouble in her heat on Friday.
The United States’ stunning run will have been a wake up call for Dutch star Femke Bol, who is aiming for a treble at the Games.
Richardson — who will also compete in the 400m hurdles and the women’s 4x400m relay — sat out the heats but her teammates comfortably qualified, without the American fireworks, for Saturday’s final.
Bol is one of two Dutch women targeting a triple gold — remarkable distance runner Sifan Hassan being the other one.