Just over a year ago the pair left Paris as Olympic champions, while Chebet won both the 5,000 and 10,000m golds.
On Saturday, in front of over 58,000 spectators at Japan’s National Stadium, she achieved the same feat, beating Faith Kipyegon to become only the third woman to do the distance double at a world championships.
Wanyonyi’s blisteringly fast race was watched by retired Kenyan 800m legend David Rudisha, who sat beside another man who knows a thing or two about the two-lap race, two-time Olympic silver medallist and World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe.
Rudisha produced one of the all-time great Olympic performances when he broke the world record to win gold at the 2012 London Games.
There was never any question of that happening in Saturday’s final, Wanyonyi winning in a championship record time of 1min 41.86sec.
In the 5,000m, Chebet outsprinted fellow Kenyan Kipyegon in a stunning finish to win the world title on Saturday, completing a 5,000-10,000 double in Tokyo to match her Olympic haul last year.
The world record holder’s victory in 14 minutes 54.36 seconds completed her set of global distance titles and denied 1,500m champion Kipyegon a double of her own in Tokyo. (Agencies)
