First day of track at Commonwealth Games

Track and field action got underway at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi on Wednesday, with the men’s 5000 metres as the first medal event. The race unfolded as a tactical battle, with a large pack alternating slow laps with sudden surges from various contenders and dark horses. It was Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro who finally upped the tempo enough to winnow the pack down to six contenders, including three Kenyans, an Australian and an Englishman.

With one lap to go, Kipsiro still led, but the three Kenyans – Eliud Kipchoge, Mark Kiptoo and Vincent Yator – were lurking ominously on his shoulder. It was Kipchoge who launched a furious sprint with 350 metres to go, but Kipsiro responded, and the two ran shoulder to shoulder for a final lap of 52.9 seconds with Kipsiro hanging on for the win in 13:31.25, ahead of Kipchoge’s 13:31.32. Kiptoo followed in third, Yator in fourth, and England’s Chris Thompson, silver medalist over 10,000 metres at the European Championships earlier this summer, finishing fifth.

Here’s what Thompson (who was sporting several bleeding spike wounds) had to say after the race about the challenges of running in a tightly bunched pack with lots of jostling and frequent changes of pace:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS8HQrfsXpM[/youtube]

For Canadians, the day’s qualifying action was generally successful. Gold-medal favourite Dylan Armstrong had a very short workday, launching a 20.01-metre shot put on his first attempt to easily surpass the automatic qualifying mark for tomorrow’s final. In the women’s hammer, Commonwealth record-holder Sultana Frizell took the opposite approach, fouling on her first two attempts before launching a clutch automatic qualifier on her third and final attempt – and her teammate Megann Rodhe did exactly the same thing, fouling twice before qualifying second behind Frizell. Calgary’s Sam Effah, meanwhile, qualified comfortably for tomorrow’s 100-metre semifinals with a 10.15-second clocking in the second round.

[CORRECTION added 10/7: Kipchoge, not Choge — thanks, Reid!]