Jemutai falls off pace at Tampere 2018

Kenyan Zena Jemutai ran a personal best 9:00.50 but her time was only good enough for a fifth place finish as Japan’s Nozoni Tanaka soared to the World Under-20 Championships women’s 3,000m gold on Wednesday in Tampere, Finland.

Team tactics and an aggressive gameplan from the gun paid rich dividends for Tanaka who clocked 8:54.01 ahead of Ethiopians Meselu Berhe (8:56.39 ) and Tsigie Gebreselama (8:59.20).

Another Japanese Yuna Wada timed 9:00.50 to finish just ahead of Jemutai.

Tanaka, whose mother Chihiro is a 2:29:30 marathon runner, led the world U20 lists with a season’s best of 8:58.83 but it was largely assumed the Ethiopian and Kenyan contingent on show in Tampere would improve dramatically on their best times on their global championship debuts.

Berhe and Gebreselama were indeed rewarded with substantial lifetime bests of 8:56.39 and 8:59.20 respectively but a lack of international experience might have proved costly to the silver medallist.

The cool conditions proved beneficial to the athletes as 14 of the 17 finalists set lifetime bests.